Moving abroad does not mean you give up your life "back home."
It means you have two places to call home.
It means every time you board a plane to go away for the holidays or for a new semester, you
leave home to go home.
It also means you have two lives to manage, with more people to (try to) stay in touch with, with many stories to be told and left untold, and with many things to look forward to impatiently.
For me, travelling is like a bookmark for my time.
I remember things by placing them on the timeline before and after I went somewhere, before I ran through an unfamiliar airport, or after I tried to board on the wrong plane, or precisely on the day on which I waited for the bus at the wrong side of the street...
My life is a flow of countdowns.
12 countdowns documented so far, precisely (and probably just as many before I started keeping track).
And it is wonderful to look back at these moments, to recall the anticipation (and not so wonderful to remember the pain of these moments ending)... but also it is important to make time to be mindful of what happens in between these bookmarks of time.
Because life is mostly what happens in between the countdowns.
So try and make it lovely. Be happy, filled with anticipation, but also with gratitude for what you have, for each ordinary, routine day you have (even the ones with the nasty deadlines).
Life the examined life (and try and be less cheesy than this, ok?).
