The circumstances of your homecoming will influence how you feel about it. There are three key factors that will make the move easier or more difficult:
- Whether or not it’s your own decision to come home
- The length of time you’ve been living abroad
- How well you’ve kept in touch with the friends and family you left behind.
Each homecoming experience is different, depending how these elements come together.
Leaving a place you’ve lived in is a kind of separation: it’s good to be able to mark the goodbyes or adieux and create affectionate memories that you can hold onto. The leaving party, for adults as much as for children, is highly emotional and symbolic. As a social and emotional indicator of what you’ll be leaving behind, it can help you prepare for feelings of loss and compensate for absence through valuable expressions of gratitude and gifts that you can take with you.