If you are like me and have an insatiable need for travel or are just thinking about starting your first abroad experience, the first thing you’ll do is look online for tips and tricks to help prepare and make the trip easier. I have seen plenty of not so helpful and amazingly insightful articles about how to prepare yourself for the culture shock you may experience abroad and how to make the most of your (what seems to be) small amount of time there. Although these are very valuable resources, you expect to be out of your comfort zone when you are no longer in your home country. What happens when you come back home and realize it no longer feels the same as it did when you left?
No one expects reverse culture shock; I remember I thought the idea was ridiculous when I was preparing to go for my first long term trip abroad this past semester. I never thought I would feel uncomfortable and restless once I returned home with more questions than answers. It isn’t just me – many people that study abroad realize that their home no longer feels like the safe haven it once did. Instead, my safe haven turned into a restrictive box that was keeping me from experiencing more life changing encounters and the people in my hometown seemed dull and unimaginative compared to the amazing people I met abroad. Obviously most of us don’t have the ability to give up school and travel for a lifetime, so the only option is to readjust and take the lessons learned from your wild experiences and apply them to your day-to-day life in order to readjust and make being home seem more exciting so you don’t keep looking backwards at the great time you had but seems like you will never have again. So while you are searching Pinterest for your next amazing travel destination, make the most of your time at home or at school by seeing your life as you would while you are traveling – the world didn’t stop turning or being beautiful when you returned home! Also, being back at the coolest school in the world helps. Go Belles!
Cliffs off the Aran Islands in Ireland
The Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland
The first thing I did to readjust was to throw myself into the things I love but didn’t have much time to do while I was abroad. I have grown up on the back of a horse, but the equestrian team only met every other week at the school I was studying at. This was enough to keep me happy, but not as much as I would have liked! I was lucky enough to be riding at an amazing barn and learned a new style of riding, but I was aching to be able to work at the barn like I would at home instead of just an hour lesson.
Once I got home, I started working insane hours at my barn because that was the one thing that made me happy to be home. Find the things that you missed and throw yourself into them wholeheartedly – it is hard to remember sometimes that you can do more of some things at home than you can when you are away. Go to your favorite restaurant (granted, Olive Garden isn’t going to taste the same after you’ve had real Italian food and the Irish pub down the street isn’t even going to come close to the atmosphere of the pub you went to in Dublin), go to a concert, or go to your favorite places and events in your own city. I could go to any sporting event around the world, but nothing compares to being at a White Sox game in Chicago surrounded by “my people.” Remind yourself why you love where you live and keep busy with those special things.
Keeping busy at the barn
Right at home at the White Sox game
Along the same lines, once you come home you can take the lessons you learned from your trips and apply them to your own town or city. I learned that I really enjoy traveling and having new experiences on my own. I would not want to always travel alone, but it is nice to have some time to myself and realign my goals and have memories that are only mine. Before I studied abroad I never would have thought to do things alone (what would people think?) but now I revel in the idea of having a day to myself and not having to worry about working around someone else’s schedule or likes and dislikes. For example, I had an amazing time backpacking around the Czech Republic and Germany inside of the Bohemian Switzerland National Park. I took this trip with another friend, but it reminded me about how much I enjoy being outside and in nature. Since being home, I take more walks and bike rides on my own. Since I live in a wooded area that I haven’t ever felt the need to fully explore, I now am having my own experiences and “trips” traversing the roads and trails around my house. Every time I go it is like a mini adventure, and I really enjoy having some time to myself. I never would have imagined to do these things alone before I left, but studying abroad taught me that I can do whatever I want to do and that I actually do enjoy having some alone time. I also have found myself interested in making new friends as well as finding beauty in unexpected places, not just in the new sites I travel to. These are perfect ways to recreate the experience of being somewhere new and learning more about other people.
Hiking in the Bohemian Switzerland National Park
Seeing the beauty in my own backyard
The hardest part about being home is that you realize nothing has changed, but you have acquired new skills, worldviews, and dreams for yourself. This makes you feel angry and lost and is why when you come home all you want to do is leave again to be back with travelers, the people that think the same way you do. You will feel more lost at home than you did in the wilderness of Germany, but it is all worth it for the amazing experiences you were lucky to have. Take lessons that you learned from your travels and apply them to your every day life. I can’t promise it will make the sadness go away, but it will make you appreciate what you have at home and what else you still have to learn right in your own backyard.
“You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.”– Miriam Adeney
Photos provided by the author
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