This time of the year I am faced with dozens of images of high school & college graduation and it set me to thinking about the unexpected journeys we take after we leave education. I certainly never expected to live in the USA or the Netherlands when I graduated from nursing! Yet here I am, facing very different challenges than the ones I imagined at 23. I have learned that life is a rollercoaster ride, with perturbing sometimes scary moments, challenging, wonderful and thrilling moments. You just have to strap in, hold your partners hand and enjoy the ride...just keep the screaming to a dull roar!
Since moving, my perturbing and scary moments have been few and far between thankfully. They have included saying goodbye to friends in the school and town I had worked in for nine years in the US, selling the home in which my children had grown up and, more recently, dealing with the death of my mother. The saying, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger " has featured many times in the last few years but am I stronger? I have cried many tears and screamed a little at times but I am still here so I guess I must be stronger.
The challenging moments must include living in a country where English is not the first language. The Dutch, thank goodness, generally speak either a little or a lot of English which either makes life easier or makes me lazier! My Dutch lessons provide a huge challenge, both for my husband & myself...it turns out that, despite encouraging my own kids & the students I worked with that homework was important & reinforced everything they had learned, I have no intention of doing the homework! Sssh, don't tell! It's worrisome when you are so bad that you actually make your teacher snort water down her nose! I did have a moment or two after that, when I thought to myself that I really should take this language thing seriously but it soon became a memory, along with the laughter between ourselves & the teacher. If nothing else I provide her with entertainment each week...that's a good thing, right?
As for the wonderful & thrilling moments thankfully they are many. Living the life of an "ExPat" can be extraordinarily lonely some of the time, but the up-side of this world is the interesting people you meet & the opportunities you have for exploration. When riding the train from Munich airport recently I happened to sit next to a young woman from Siberia, who was traveling to Switzerland. We spent a wonderful 40 minutes chatting (of course her English was exemplary!) and I was left thinking how great to meet a stranger that for a brief moment had enriched my life. The friends I have made through my travels are part of the amazing tapestry that this life as an expat has created...from treasured friends in the USA to new friends in the Netherlands. Many of those friends are also expats & we move in & out of each others lives, some to stay friends & provide another country to visit, some to drift away but always adding to this experience.
So, graduates of high school & college (my own daughter included), grab a ticket & jump on board this rollercoaster....it may be the ride of your life!
