Re-Entry 101

One beautiful summer evening when I was in my mid-20s, my boyfriend called.

I was home visiting family during a grad school break, so I’d expected our usual chit-chat.

Instead, we broke up…

Here are two big misconceptions I had about re-entry. Can you relate?

Whether you’re a career expat, a Fulbright scholar, high school or college study abroad student, Peace Corps volunteer, perpetual nomad, intern, volunteer, international school teacher, etc, your return home will likely be THE hardest part of your entire living abroad experience!  You wouldn’t think that returning home, to the familiar, would be so difficult, right?…

Commiserating can be helpful release in re-entry. It can also turn into a harmful habit that will keep you from reaching your career, relationship, travel, and life goals. Here are 5 ways to reduce commiserating in re-entry…

Have you ever thought about all of the little things you’ve incorporated into your life after living abroad?

You’ve returned home from abroad weeks or even months earlier than expected. You likely had little warning or time to pack up your life abroad and say your good-byes. Your flight home might have been nerve-racking and chaotic, and now you’re exhausted and adjusting to a whole new reality…spending much of your time at home,…

I used to have a negative view of re-entry because I thought there were only two ways of dealing with life after living abroad: 1. Readjust and reintegrate to life at home (thereby giving up all things I loved about living abroad). 2. Or move abroad again as soon as possible.  I had no interest…

A few days into my first re-entry after living abroad for a year, I happily joined my parents and brother for a family dinner. While growing up, we each sat in one particular spot at the dinner table, and at that first post-abroad family dinner I quickly noticed that my younger brother was sitting in…

Returnees come in all shapes and sizes. And, as I’ve found, that makes talking about “the re-entry experience” in a way that resonates with all returnees super difficult. (That’s one of the reasons why it’s so hard to get returnees to attend re-entry workshops – but that’s a whole other blog post). While there are…