10 Times you Wished you didn't Leave Home

Working overseas is a journey of hope, challenges, triumph and failures. It is a back to back to back emotional roller coaster because nothing comes easy especially on a foreign soil. My first 10 months in the UK has been a transformative experience, the most challenging of which I am sharing below. I know Expats like me can relate to this.

1. When you miss your family but you have to wait 7 hours to video call
2. When you're having a bad day and just wanted to taste your mom's soup but you just can't make it taste like it
3. When your friends upload photos and you're not in it
4. When you're sweating over small stuff and nobody's telling you that things will be okay
5. When you don't have extra £1k to fly yourself home and hug your boyfriend
6. When something's worrying happened back home and you're not around to check how things are going (Taal volcano I'm looking at you)
7. When you get sick, realising nobody will notice you're missing unless you didn't clock in the next day
8. When you can't share a silly joke to your work colleague because you're conscious that what may seem funny to you may not be funny for him
9. When you're stressing out and there's no comfort food (Potato corner and buko juice or Jollibee!) or comfort activity or comfort place to go to
10. When nobody can't relate to why you're sad and realising it's totally you're fault for moving abroad

Leaving home is a big step of veering away from your comfort zone. I guess I'm still somewhere "Fear and Learning zone" right now. Time will come, I will be on the "Learning and Growth" and will eventually see the benefits of this big move. In the mean time, taking baby-steps to carry on is sufficient.