Change your expat life
TCKs and Making Roots — Musings on Global Nomad Life
When I try to picture myself somewhere forever —no more moves ever— I have a hard time naming a specific city, a country, or even a continent where I think I might land. I only know that it would be by the sea or the ocean. I know that a lot will depend on where the kids end up, but, for example, I would love to have a house by the sea in France.
I always wonder what my TCKs will make this nomadic lifestyle mean in their lives. Will they want to stay in one place all their lives in order to build strong roots? Will they have the travel bug and move around? Will they want a bit of both, like I do?
Washington, DC, is as close to home as it gets for now. Both my husband and I graduated from college there, the boys were born there, and we go back after rotations abroad. But now that we can work remotely from anywhere, it is becoming possible to imagine a life with firmer roots.
Asking the big questions
When we ask ourselves big questions like where we might settle and for how long, it’s easy to just say “I don’t know.” It’s also easy to suppress interesting ideas before they can even come to life by thinking they’re not realistic.
I meet many global nomad couples who do not have the same ideas as each other when it comes to where home should or could be. This is something many of my clients struggle with. For instance, one wants to go back to his home country to be closer to elderly parents while his partner prefers to maintain their nomadic lifestyle. In another case, one of the partners wants to stay in the posting and not move again.
In order to understand what types of roots you want, it’s important to develop your vision. Your vision for your life is an important tool. If you’re ready to visualize where you want to be in 5 years, I invite you sign up for the newsletter. By signing up, you’ll receive access to the airport test, which will help you gain clarity on what you want in life—including where you want to live and what you want to be doing.
It can be a challenge for Global Nomads to imagine what lies beyond the next post, the next place. But when you create a vision for what you want your life to be—no matter what it looks like or where it will take you—you are setting yourself for a fulfilling experience of the journey. What you might discover?
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