Between Two Worlds: Navigating Summer Visits for Expats

Summer break. For many expats, it’s synonymous with “going home” and seeing family, reconnecting with old friends, letting grandparents soak in time with the grandkids. On the surface, it sounds like a warm and joyful reunion. And sometimes, it really is. But often, it’s something else entirely.

You pack your bags not for a holiday, but for a whirlwind of expectations spoken and unspoken. Grandparents might want to squeeze a year’s worth of love, activities, and sugar into a single week. Your carefully built routines get swept aside in a matter of hours. Jet lag is real. So is re-entry shock.

And then there are the questions:

“Why are you still abroad?”

“Don’t you miss home?”

“When are you moving back?”

They’re rarely asked with malice, but they still sting. Because how do you answer without justifying your whole life?

You notice how things have shifted. Some people don’t really ask about your life abroad. Others do, but only to scratch the surface. The culture, the growth, the struggles you’ve been through—it all seems far away here. Too far, sometimes, to explain.

And there’s that unexpected grief: realizing you’ve changed. That they have too. That “home” may still be where your story began, but no longer where it makes sense.

You might be staying with family, sleeping in the guest room, or maybe your old childhood bedroom. And suddenly, despite all you’ve experienced and built, you’re being treated like the person you used to be. Under their roof. Under their rules. It’s a strange, sometimes stifling nostalgia.

But in the midst of all this there are moments. Tiny, grounding, beautiful moments. A familiar street you once knew by heart. A meal that tastes like childhood. A friend who still sees you clearly. A grandparent’s joy at simply being present.

And maybe, that’s the invitation. Not to make it feel like it once did, but to notice what it is now.

To be open. To be real. To set boundaries when you need them - gently, clearly. To grieve the losses and celebrate the connections that still remain.

COACHING because summer visits can be both comfort and challenge.

What would it look like to meet this summer not with a script but with self-awareness, honesty, and gentle boundaries? Where might you give yourself permission to show up as you are and not who others remember you to be?

Because maybe, in this in-between space, you get to redefine what home means on your own terms. And maybe that’s the most honest journey of all.

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HOME IS NOT WHERE YOU LIVE BUT WHERE THEY UNDERSTAND YOU.

- Christian Morgenstern -