I came back from abroad and I don’t fit in anywhere

Eva, I lived abroad for six years. Last year I came back to be close to my family.

I thought I’d feel like I was coming home. Instead I feel like a stranger here too: my friends have moved on, and I no longer know where I belong.

Hi. This has a name, and many people who return live through it: coming back is a kind of migration too. You came back to a place that changed, just as much as you changed.

«You didn’t come back. You arrived somewhere new that looks familiar.»

Give yourself the time you’d give a new city. Look for people who’ve also lived abroad; they’ll understand without explanations. And keep something from the life you built there: a habit, a language, a friend at the other end of the line.

With warmth, Eva