It’s a mixed feeling when you’re leaving to go back to your country after spending a year in the USA. You have made many memories that you’ll always cherish all your life, you are leaving behind close friends, amazing colleagues, a beautiful and diverse group of people you hold very dear to yourself. At a certain point in this fellowship program, you almost forget that you are not going to stay here forever and you’ll have to leave behind the place you live in, along with countless days and nights of staying close to your friends, that can no longer continue as it always was or at least felt like it always has been this way.
On the other hand, you are being awaited by your loved ones back home, with whom you have lived most of your life. Your parents, siblings, friends, relatives and everyone you had a good relationship with, are eager to see you again. You feel very excited when you think about it and you are overwhelmed with emotions when you realize that your contact with your family back home will no longer be just virtual, seeing them on your cell phone or laptop’s screen. It is going to be real, you’ll be able to feel them and hold them close to you.
You also have some fears in your mind before you return. The fear of unknown – you don’t know what is waiting for you there. Sometimes, you’re uncertain about your future goals and ambitions or confused and undecided regarding some of the important decisions you have to make before you go. Decisions related to your career, family, finances, travel, education, responsibilities and many more things you need to think about. Sometimes it feels you don’t know where to start from, how to plan, prioritize and move forward with many things. But this is life – you have to deal with it.
You’ll experience that there are things that are already planned for you, whether you know it or not, but you’ll experience the things that you are destined to face. You will go through the test of your fate, situations that have been planned and crafted for you to pass through. You have no authority or power to evade what’s waiting for you. All you can do is to be patient, plan and make efforts to the best of your abilities, stay composed and think wisely and you’ll get through it. Take everything as an opportunity to learn, grow and get stronger. Keep up the high spirits, go for all good opportunities. If you don’t see one, create one for yourself. Stay positive and determined, as this is the key to overcome all the challenges of life, and moving back is one of those challenges, but you may realize that the bigger challenges are lining up and are yet to come.
