Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Tuesday Topic: Feelings about going back


Recently we had a series of questions from someone who was thinking about heading overseas. Now we have a few from someone considering a move in the other direction, back to her original home country. Here is the second question:
I have a lot of fear and excitement about possibly returning to the states. Within a minute's time, I can get overcome with excitement and fear all at once. I think about returning to life as it was before, and I get sad. Then I think about returning to the conveniences, friends/family, and worshipping in my home country again, and I get excited. Is this what you feel, too? How do you work through and reconcile these feelings?

There was a really good post about this topic on The Overseas Life blog, too.

(If you have a “Tuesday Topic” question, please email it to me at fylliska@gmail.com. Provide your blog address if you would like to be linked to, or specify if you would like to remain anonymous. Thanks!)
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4 comments:

  1. Hu FamilySeptember 25, 2014 at 6:01 PM

    We've just done it - 4 days ago. My last few posts speak of the mix of emotions (milizlinx.com)
    No answers for you though - I'd love to hear some! We just go through the back and forth of feelings and try to embrace them all.

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  2. PhyllisSeptember 29, 2014 at 4:46 PM

    I think most of us feel some kind of mix of feelings when we travel back and forth. Even those who are wildly excited about it, get hit in the face with changes or other reverse culture shock when they land in their "home" countries. I have only gone back for relatively short visits, and I must admit that I usually pretty much only feel fear and dread about those times. But I work through the feelings by giving them to God, deliberately looking for things to be thankful for (time with relatives and friends!), and just going moment by moment.

    One bit of advice I can share is to give yourself lots of grace. It will take time to adjust. I've heard 2.5 years in a new (or new again) place before your feel settled, and that has been just about right for me. Don't expect things to be the same as they were before, too.

    I just prayed for you now.

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  3. PhyllisOctober 1, 2014 at 10:30 AM

    There is another excellent article for you here:
    http://velvetashes.com/walking-on-jell-0/

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  4. PhyllisOctober 5, 2014 at 10:19 AM

    And this is good, about handling any of those emotions that we have:
    http://essentialthingdevotions.com/handle-haywire-emotions/

    ReplyDelete

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