- Recognize that reentry challenges are common for many people returning from an extended overseas experience
- Acknowledge that saying goodbye to friends/host family/faculty from your International Student Teaching experience program may prove emotional
- Remember that people will have varying levels of interest in your International Student Teaching experience
- Reflect on your experience periodically through a journal
- Be patient with yourself and others
Pace. It takes time to adjust to a new culture. It will take time to re-adjust to life back home. You may not be at a place to talk about your experience right now. People may approach you and ask, "So, how was Costa Rica?" How can you begin to summarize all you learned, experienced and felt in response to a question like that? You may not even know the first thing to say. That's OK. Adjustment and re-adjustment happen or "unwind" in their own time (like a baseball game) and not on someone's strict time-schedule (like a basketball game). Find the pace that works for you.
Space. What is your heart longing for? Do you need a friend to sit with you and ask you a bunch of probing questions? Would you rather get away for a couple of days to sit, journal, pray, go for a long walk, and process things on your own? There will be times that you will want to be in community and times where when you will long for solitude. Ask yourself how much space you need. Do I need to move toward a friend or two and give them a list of questions to ask me? Is your life so busy now that you have returned, that you have no time or space to reflect? Find the space you need to process what is going on internally, or your heart will begin to leak in ways difficult to manage.
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