Two+ decades of living the expat life.
5000 miles as the crow flies once or twice a year.
A home away from home. So familiar but becoming more foreign with time.
It's family & BBQs, day trips & time-outs, and a gazillion memories.
Goodbyes are getting harder not knowing how many more there'll be.
This is my entry into ActiveRain's September blogging challenge: write a story in 53 words. It didn't take me long to pen the words above but it's just a taste of what the expat life truly entails. The challenge is that there's so much more to say. How do you capture the essence of this exciting but difficult journey? How do you convey its trials and tribulations and the unique gifts and lessons it provides?
Calling two countries home is a privilege, a rollercoaster, an extraordinary path to wander. It entails many missed celebrations, and a helplessness when life twists in difficult turns and there's not much else you can do but watch it unfold from across the pond. It means carrying two passports (and getting to skip the longer immigration lines), and lots of money spent on flights.
But, it's also a continuous lesson in making moments count, and to find happiness in the seemingly mundane. It gives me immense joy to just go grocery shopping or to a doctor's appointment with my mom, and an evening stroll with my dad. It's truly the little things that matter. It has also given me a unique capacity to empathize with my relocation and military clients. I get it, I know what it means to pack up and start over, and to leave loves and the familiar behind.
The expat life is not easy but it's the one I chose. It's challenging and beautiful, just like this contest. A story of 53 words is but a synopsis leaving much to the imagination of the reader. If you want to give it a try, go with a passion, an idea that first comes to mind. Allow your thoughts to flow freely and then edit away.
Challenge completed, 353 words exactly 😉
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