Expat journal

Go back

You live abroad and return to your home country.

It’s a mix of emotions and feelings: the exhaustion from the journey, expectations, emotional roller coasters.

This year, while taking a photo in front of a monument, I felt like a tourist—and it was the strangest thing. You visit your old life, while your other life remains elsewhere.

Why do you go back? For the sister-like friends, because it’s part of my identity and my children’s, and I don’t want them to feel like strangers in this country.

Why don’t you return for good? Despite the pain of separation and the what ifs, I have built another life that I love.

Deep down, the life of an immigrant is strange—once you leave, you are destined to wander and find new points of reference.