Morag

Finding yourself uprooted and becoming an expat in a new country can present an opportunity to reinvent yourself.

I don’t mean you have to run in to the nearest phone box, twirl and appear as Wonder Woman. Don’t rush off to the nearest tattoo parlour, for that butterfly tattoo you have secretly longed for, just yet!

Although, you have just been handed a blank canvas and you can decide on how to paint your new expat life … be as creative as you like!

Expat life can open so many new doors, although initially you may have a strong need to stay grounded whilst gripping on to the ‘old you’ for security. That’s fine, it’s perfectly normal and can stop us from going crazy those first few months. But when you’ve survived the initial stresses of a move, it’s time to reach out and grab new opportunities that a different country can offer.

It is exciting and liberating!

Ultimately, it’s how you embrace change and whether you look at it as a chance to grow or not, whilst staying true to yourself. For me, I soon realised that I had more time on my hands helped by the added bonus of having hired help to do all the chores that would take up the little free time I had back home. Really there was no excuse.

Some expats look at moving as a chance to change their personalities and lifestyles. I’ve heard this being described as the ‘expat chameleon syndrome’ by one blogger.

They did expand on this syndrome as not being entirely correct as a chameleon blends in with its surroundings and that some more introvert expats might be attempting to be an extrovert for the first times in their lives!

I use to wonder if reinventing yourself was being fake, then I looked up the definitions: reinvent is to invent again or renew whereas fake is made to look real in order to deceive people.