Spending time with family and old friends

There is nothing like spending time with family and friends that you have know for decades.

I can’t help but wonder how common it is for people to get married, move away, and have children in a new place. After all, how common is it that people from the same town fall in love and settle right around the same exact area? There’s usually at least a move a town over, or oftentimes to quite a faraway place. So the question is, how often do people visit friends and family from an earlier stage of life? And how does that enhance your life in this later stage?

For me, my husband is from another country. Being near his family means adapting to a different language and culture altogether. I’m so grateful to be in my hometown right now with the chance to catch up with people I have known for over 20 years – that’s longer than I’ve been married. There is a certain level of comfort, trust, fluency, and care that you just can’t find anywhere else. If you have a history somewhere, I believe that place will always be a part of you.

The customs, the people, the memories.

For me, these things strengthen me.

Even if I married a man from another country, I will always be me. And I will always be reminded of who I have been in an earlier stage of life, here. I’m still me no matter where I am, but words come out of my mouth and pauses for listening come about at just the right times so naturally, here.

When I was in the airport, a stranger asked me where I live. For some reason I had a very hard time answering that question. I did not want to have to choose. Technically, I have spent more time in my birth country this year. But I have family now in both places. So both places will always be my home, from now on. Why do I have to choose just one?

It may not be common to truly feel like you live in two countries at the same time. But I do.