The Art of Returning Home

When discussing the topic of reentry back into your home country, a Japanese businessman said, “My advice about coming home? Don’t.” Last night, a few friends and I were talking about how we would spend our last few weeks in Barcelona and how we think our lives will be after we return. Hands down, all of us have had an experience of a lifetime and we know it will be different, but as a prior exchange student, I do not think my fellow mates actually grasp the fact of how differently things will be when they return home. In addition, we will not know how much we have grown and changed during this experience until we return home and attempt to go on living the life we left before coming abroad. I think more than anything, that is the whole point, to take your experiences that you have gained and to apply them to your life in the present moment. If you return to your country and after a while, you find yourself getting tired of your job, then maybe it is time to move on. If you return home and you find yourself not connecting with some of your friends as much as you did before, then maybe it is time to let some of them go. If you return home and find yourself depressed and tired of your current living circumstance, then maybe it is time to pick up and go. “Moreover, simply because reentry can be frustrating, lonely and generally unpleasant at times is not to say that it is a harmful experience or a negative one. After all, frustration, loneliness and unpleasantness are very often the precursors of insight and personal growth.” Take that insight and personal growth, apply it to the ‘new you’ and continue moving forward. The experiences we gain from traveling are blessings, for no reason should we look at them as negative things. It is, in fact, our experiences that make us the individuals we are.