Can A Person Really Go Home Again?
Judy Ramsook
April 21, 2006
Usually when people go abroad on a vacation or business trip, they are happy to return home from their recent round of activities. If, on the other hand, one has been living abroad for a while and decides to return to his or her native land for a brief visit, depending on what he or she encounters, is when that familiar phrase might rear it’s appearance. The one that says, ‘ you can never go home again.’
While the mere act of going home again is always possible, for some people become homesick easier and faster than others, it’s what one sees happening in his country is what might make him wonder, can I ever live here again? Especially after living in a place that is void of all the things and changes he sees happening in his own country.
When that individual was away trying to eke out a better life for him or herself elsewhere, some changes in his or her own country have taken place.
Maybe there is civil unrest due to certain things such as rise in crime, poor government leadership, and the frustration of some citizens who cannot find decent jobs in their own country due to open racial bias, corruption and other factors. What’s a person who has been living abroad for a while supposed to do?
Adjust and learn to tolerate the corruption, open racial bias, and high crime rate? It might not seem like the place you were once proud to call home, back when you left.
For so much has happened so fast it seems. How did all these changes take place so quickly one might ask. Or were these entities always there the same time you once lived there, but maybe you were too young, innocent and naïve to notice?
For if you decide to remain in your country amidst all the above mentioned changes, the first thing you might want to adjust to is the rise in crime.
When you lived there a few years ago you did not have to live in fear nor worry about getting a guard dog. Now you might have to.
It has become nearly impossible to turn on the evening news or open the daily newspaper and not hear or read of some one being violated, mutilated, murdered, kidnapped and tortured at the hands of some criminal. The mere thought might make one shudder as he or she braces himself to watch or read the news of the day.
There is another thing as well. Even though you may now possess a college degree or two, those alone won’t land you the job you want.
With the amount of corruption and racial bias there is in your country now, you might have to know some one who knows some one else who can put in a good word on your behalf in order for you to get that job. It could even be months before you can find such a person, so you might have to take any job until you find the one you want.
Going home again can be enjoyable if it’s the same orderly, wonderful place you knew before you left, but if the changes you now see are too unbearable for you to withstand and adjust to, then going home can make some one want to flee as fast as he can from that same location he or she once proudly called home.
While the mere act of going home again is always possible, for some people become homesick easier and faster than others, it’s what one sees happening in his country is what might make him wonder, can I ever live here again? Especially after living in a place that is void of all the things and changes he sees happening in his own country.
When that individual was away trying to eke out a better life for him or herself elsewhere, some changes in his or her own country have taken place.
Maybe there is civil unrest due to certain things such as rise in crime, poor government leadership, and the frustration of some citizens who cannot find decent jobs in their own country due to open racial bias, corruption and other factors. What’s a person who has been living abroad for a while supposed to do?
Adjust and learn to tolerate the corruption, open racial bias, and high crime rate? It might not seem like the place you were once proud to call home, back when you left.
For so much has happened so fast it seems. How did all these changes take place so quickly one might ask. Or were these entities always there the same time you once lived there, but maybe you were too young, innocent and naïve to notice?
For if you decide to remain in your country amidst all the above mentioned changes, the first thing you might want to adjust to is the rise in crime.
When you lived there a few years ago you did not have to live in fear nor worry about getting a guard dog. Now you might have to.
It has become nearly impossible to turn on the evening news or open the daily newspaper and not hear or read of some one being violated, mutilated, murdered, kidnapped and tortured at the hands of some criminal. The mere thought might make one shudder as he or she braces himself to watch or read the news of the day.
There is another thing as well. Even though you may now possess a college degree or two, those alone won’t land you the job you want.
With the amount of corruption and racial bias there is in your country now, you might have to know some one who knows some one else who can put in a good word on your behalf in order for you to get that job. It could even be months before you can find such a person, so you might have to take any job until you find the one you want.
Going home again can be enjoyable if it’s the same orderly, wonderful place you knew before you left, but if the changes you now see are too unbearable for you to withstand and adjust to, then going home can make some one want to flee as fast as he can from that same location he or she once proudly called home.
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