(...)
But there are the fears. And yes, life has gone on without you. And the longer you stay in your new home, the more profound those changes will become. Holidays, birthdays, weddings — every event that you miss suddenly becomes a tick mark on an endless ream of paper. One day, you simply look back and realize that so much has happened in your absence, that so much has changed. You find it harder and harder to start conversations with people who used to be some of your best friends, and in-jokes become increasingly foreign — you have become an outsider.
(...)
So you look at your life, and the two countries that hold it, and realize that you are now two distinct people. As much as your countries represent and fulfill different parts of you and what you enjoy about life, as much as you have formed unbreakable bonds with people you love in both places, as much as you feel truly at home in either one, so you are divided in two. For the rest of your life, or at least it feels this way, you will spend your time in one naggingly longing for the other, and waiting until you can get back for at least a few weeks and dive back into the person you were back there.
(...)
When you live abroad, you realize that, no matter where you are, you will always be an ex-pat. There will always be a part of you that is far away from its home and is lying dormant until it can breathe and live in full color back in the country where it belongs. To live in a new place is a beautiful, thrilling thing, and it can show you that you can be whoever you want — on your own terms. It can give you the gift of freedom, of new beginnings, of curiosity and excitement. But to start over, to get on that plane, doesn’t come without a price. You cannot be in two places at once, and from now on, you will always lay awake on certain nights and think of all the things you’re missing out on back home."
Cdgabinete: living abroad since 2004!
(yeap, that year in Lisbon counts like living abroad)
2 comentários:
:)
Não concordo com tudo mas no geral não posso negar que muito do que está aqui é verdade.
S. Francisco, Hong Kong, Riyadh, Londres, e agora em 2014 Doha...
E lá para 2020 o Canadá e os futuros portos árticos...
Mudar de país não é começar do zero, há uma capacidade de inclusão que o tempo nos vai dando, de mudança em mudança. Chegamos, muitas vezes com a possibilidade de fazermos a nossa própria equipa, que vai sendo uma recapitulação de virtudes passadas e novos talentos...
E depois há o facto de mudar-mos para uma estrutura nacional com estrangeiros ou uma verdadeira estrutura internacional. Por exemplo aqui em Londres tenho uma verdadeira equipa internacional, com 79 pessoas de 35 nacionalidades, conversas que variam entre o árabe e o inglês, entre o urdu e o alemão. Acho que talvez essa seja a essência do verdadeiro ex-pat. Não procura reproduzir uma casa que já teve, tenta procurar conforto na casa que tem diante de si.
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