The seed for our first international move was planted long before we got serious about the idea. Whenever we even got slightly fed up with a job, a neighborhood or a school we would scheme about moving abroad.
Our starter patch was Mexico. Though just six weeks separated the day we made our decision from the day we landed in Mexico, we had talked moving so many times there was nothing left to discuss except how to sell our cars and our stuff.
The seed for moving to our second country, Argentina, was planted by an expat we met in Mexico three months before we made that move. Since we had already sold our cars and stuff we had ample time to dig into learning about Argentina, a country we had never visited and never contemplated as a possible home for us.
Our third country, Japan, took six weeks to blossom. We had lived in Japan 25 years ago and had always wanted to go back, so the roots of our interest and knowledge ran deep. The trickier part of this move was that we were looking for jobs–but those sprouted quickly after some intensive internet tilling.
When looking for gardeners one often has to look no further than those people who are patient, optimistic and not afraid of getting their hands dirty. Independent expats are very similar–once they have a vision, they start planning the layout of their new lives, investigating what they want to plant in it and then get their hands dirty cleaning up their old lives.
What grows in the expat plot is sometimes unexpected and surprising, but due to its broad nutrient base, uprooting and transplanting are easy. It might look a little messy when we first get started, but over time a bountiful harvest of experiences can be enjoyed.
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But what happens when the exotic plant that you’ve become after all of these adventures gets transplanted back home and lands on rocky soil? Not to mention feeling self-conscious as a rare plant among indigenous ones? That’s on my mind, I think, because I blogged about Tucson this week, from the perspective of a drooping repatriate…
I enjoyed your piece on Tucson and will repost to Facebook. I am quite sure I would feel exactly the same as you if I were back in the US–which is why we don’t have plans to move back. I don’t want to get caught up in the negative media cycle as it is detrimental to heart and soul and I see nothing I can positively add if I engage in it. I know there are good and bad people on both sides of every issue but having lived outside of the US for many years now feel that I can no longer serve judgement on who is right and who is wrong.
I love this. It would never occur to me to think of a “rexpat” as immature or flighty. I guess that sort of thing is just normal in the circles I move in. I do know that during my 7 years in China I’ve frequently heard comments (or the insinuations behind them) from those at “home” wondering when I will grow up/get it out of my system and come home…!
Thanks for the comment Tanya, here’s to hoping we never grow up!
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