Welcome Home! Is it good to be back?

Today is January 5^th, 2020 and I’ve been home from my semester abroad in the magical city of Maastricht, Netherlands for a 13 whole days! To say the least, it has been an interesting two weeks; it’s probably been the hardest two weeks of my life so far.

I came home Christmas Eve after a – 26-hour travel day – and surprised my whole family by coming home before they were expecting me to.

And after about a day, with the excitement of my homecoming dying down, it hit me: this actually really sucks.

72 hours after my return, I have experienced every emotion on my study abroad program’s re-entry guide at least once. Boredom, frustration, depression, loneliness and all the works all hit me at once. To cope, I have forced myself to get out of the house, go to my favorite coffee shops, catch-up with friends and family, and although it’s been helpful, it still feels like I’m longing for more – as if something is missing. One minute I’m riding my bike through my beautiful European city, planning my next adventure to another country just a train ride away, and the next, I’m back to sitting in rush hour traffic with trivial home, university, and work responsibilities on my mind to take care of. It’s a difficult feeling that I simply can’t describe.

As one of my friends put it after returning home from being away at college, it’s almost like things back home are frozen in time. Sure, there’s a couple new restaurants around town, the university is expanding, but for the most part, everything is the same.

It’s been great seeing my friends again, but they ask me what it was like to go abroad and after being asked what feels like hundreds of times, I still don’t know how to answer. Plus, I don’t want to bore them or sound pretentious with all of my “Back in [insert European country here]” stories as most of my friends haven’t had the opportunity to experience what I just did.

After two weeks, I can say that for me, it’s not good to be back. However, I’ve come to terms with the fact that I might not be okay for a while, and that’s okay.

On the bright side, I’ve come to acknowledge how grateful I am every single day for all the people I’ve met, things I’ve experienced, and challenges I’ve overcome over the past four months, which has been the best treatment for the reverse culture shock.

Gratitude just might be the cure.