It’s a Monday, and I’m traveling. I’ve been in San Diego since Thursday night, enjoying Palm trees, incredible sunsets, and the ocean. Best of all, I’m free from the tyranny of the undone and urgent. I think you know what I mean.
Getting away gives perspective and peace and I’ve needed both.
Because I’m traveling, I’m posting a graphic on transition that is an excellent description of the life of the expat wanderer. It comes from a blog called The Culture Blend. The blogger, Jerry, is gifted at articulating some of the paradoxes of living cross culturally and giving practical ways to live and thrive in this journey. Enjoy this graphic and take a look at some other pieces on his blog!
Along with the graphic, I’ve included an excerpt from the full piece.
Where I live people come and go . . . a lot. That’s the part that they don’t put in the brochure when you move abroad . . .
“Adventure of a lifetime — Explore exotic lands! Learn new languages! Say goodbye to 20% of your friends every summer and random others throughout the year!”
Sign here.
It is a big painful part of the expat experience though. Transition that is. Not the expected ones like “culture shock”, bumbling language mistakes and system conversions. We saw those coming from a mile away (1.60934 kilometers). We read books and blogs about those. Some of us even went to seminars and conferences about how to “transition well”. There is no small bit of attention paid to the beginning phases of life as a foreigner. There is also a growing bit of attention surrounding the ending phases — leaving well, saying goodbye, repatriating, reverse culture shock and so on.
Not knocking that since . . . you know . . . I wouldn’t have a job without it.
BUT . . .
Here’s the kicker: As long as you live abroad — TRANSITION NEVER STOPS.
Read the entire post here!
