Returning Home

Coming home can be just as much of a shock as living in another country. 

Your return is the beginning of an inevitable transition: merging your new experience into your old life. It;s safe to assume you were introduced to new things, new ways of interpreting things and new ways of doing things. If you don’t prepare for this, you may feel disconnected, isolated and rootless. This is "reverse culture shock" or "re-entry shock". Although it may not be as significant as the initial culture shock you experience upon going overseas, it can be more upsetting as it is often unexpected.

Stages of Culture Shock

At first, you may be excited to return home - seeing friends and family members, wearing the rest of your wardrobe, and eating at your favorite restaurants. However, this initial euphoria may not last long, and you might find yourself feeling out of place in your own culture. Although it may take time, you will begin a gradual adjustment back towards feeling comfortable with where and who you are.

Stage 1: Disengagement and Departure
While you are still overseas, you begin to start thinking about moving back home and moving away from your experience and friends abroad.

Stage 2: Euphoria/the Honeymoon
You may be excited to be back home and others may be equally delighted to have you back. You have the opportunity to do, eat, see, smell and visit with all of those things that you missed while you were away from home. After people express their pleasure at seeing you again, and listen politely to your stories for a few minutes, you may suddenly and/or painfully realize that they are not particularly interested in what happened to you and would much rather prefer to talk about their own affairs.

Stage 3: Alienation
In this stage, you experience dampened euphoria with feelings of alienation, frustration and anger. You may even feel like an outsider - a foreigner in your own country. Resentment, loneliness, disorientation and even a sense of helplessness may pervade.

Stage 4: Gradual Readjustment
The fourth stage of reentry includes a gradual readjustment to life at home. It’s important to remember that the shock of returning home will eventually dissipate.

What Next? How do I feel normal again?

Although it takes time, you can use the same tools you learned while abroad to help you cope with this new adjustment. Acknowledge that what you are feeling is real. Only 1% of US students study abroad. Here are a number of suggestions to help you deal with this major transformation in your life:

• Talk with people who understand
  Keep in touch with people from your program or your host families abroad. They understand the experiences you went through, and are most likely to have their own trouble adapting back home.
• Share your experience with others
  Volunteer to talk to prospective Study Abroad students. Talk to professors in your academic department to find other ways to incorporate your newfound knowledge into your academic experience.
• Stay international
  Read magazines, newspapers and web-sites from abroad. Get involved with international organizations and/or student clubs. You can travel cheaply here like you did abroad, and meet international travelers in youth hostels in the US and Canada.
• Try new things
  If you return to the same place as a different person, redefine the place. Take up a new hobby, residence, sport, mode of transport.