Home, Belonging & Life Between Countries
Living across countries can change what home and belonging mean.
These reflections explore what it can feel like to build a life in different places, live between countries and realise that somewhere familiar may no longer feel quite the way it once did.
They offer space to reflect on where you belong, what home means to you now and the ways living abroad may have changed you along the way.
Living Abroad Has Changed My Idea of Home
Years of living abroad can quietly change our relationship with home. VivMcG reflects on what happens when somewhere familiar no longer feels quite the same and belonging begins to stretch across more than one place.
Living Half Unpacked
Repeated moves can leave us physically settled while, at the same time, part of us remains ready to leave again. This blogpost is an exploration of emotional rootlessness, impermanence and what it means to begin truly arriving in the life you're living now.
No Longer Fully Belonging
What happens when you feel connected to several places but completely rooted in none? This reflection explores how years of international life can reshape identity, belonging and our understanding of where home is.
Always Between Places
Constant movement between countries can create a tiredness that isn't simply about travelling. VivMcG explores the quieter emotional effects of continually arriving, leaving and adjusting, and the difficulty of feeling grounded when you're rarely still for long.
What Years of Moving Countries Has Taught Me
Repeatedly adapting and beginning again can develop strengths we barely notice in ourselves. Looking back over years of moving countries, VivMcG reflects on the resilience, perspective and self-awareness that can quietly grow through international life.
The Small Ways Living Abroad Changes You
Not every change brought about by living abroad is dramatic. Sometimes it's only when we return somewhere familiar that we notice the habits, behaviours and ways of seeing the world we've quietly absorbed from the places we've lived.
From Insider to Outsider to Insider Again
Becoming a beginner in unfamiliar places can be uncomfortable, however what once felt strange can gradually become familiar. Through her experiences across different countries, VivMcG explores the recurring cycle of finding a new sense of belonging.
Losing a Part of You
When a role or part of life that once helped define you disappears, the loss can leave you wondering who you are without it. This reflection explores that quieter form of grief and the gradual discovery that identity continues to evolve beyond what has been lost.
we're on the move
Repeated international moves can feel very different as the years pass. Looking back over moves between several countries, VivMcG reflects on leaving places that have become home, beginning again and why experience doesn't necessarily make the next move easier.