Home is a pregnant pause & expat ‘um’

Kenya is my new home.  I’ve moved here after living my entire life in Canada.  I find myself asking people, on a regular basis, where’s home?

If you’ve lived overseas for any length of time you’ll understand the pregnant pause that happens when you ask someone where’s home?

A few ums are thrown in for good measure.  The um is what the Shah brothers, authors of Club Expat – A teenager’s guide to moving overseas, call the expat um.  A slight frown tends to furrow their brow.  Silence ensues.

These are all sure signs that you’ve met someone who has spent a good deal of their time away from the place they were born.

It got me thinking about home.  Some people spend a lifetime searching for it.  Some, like ET travel very, very far to find it after they’ve lost it.

Your home brings to a distinct perspective to your life.

Is home where you are at the moment (whether or not you’re on vacation)?

Is home where you were born?

Is home where your family is?

Is home where you feel the best match to your culture(s)?

Is home a place or a feeling or a combination of both?

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2 Responses to Home is a pregnant pause & expat ‘um’

  1. Jon-Andreas says:

    Home is where the tooth brush stands :) But you can perhaps argue that you have different levels of “home”; you will never loose “home” as where you grew up, but you also have other “homes” where the feeling of “homeness” hits you the moment you walk through the door.

  2. Lee-Anne Ragan says:

    Well hello papa to be- wonder how your sense of home will be affected by baby2b?! I like your nomadic sense- toothbrush = home :)

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