3 Tips for a Positive Re-Entry after Study Abroad

Study abroad is amazing, isn’t it? You meet so many new people, experience new things every single day, and challenge yourself in ways you couldn’t ever have imagined.

The downside to study abroad? At some point you have to return home!

For most students, the re-entry transition is the hardest part of the entire study abroad experience. You wouldn’t think that going home, that returning to the familiar, would be so difficult, right? But it is. 

Here's the good news: with the right approach, you can turn re-entry into a positive force in your life that leads to even bigger and better things. To get you started, here are three re-entry tips:

1) Unpack your emotions. Returnees feel SO many things in re-entry! Your feelings are important to listen to because they’re “data” that tell you what you want and don’t want in your life going forward. Don’t minimize your feelings or sweep them under the rug. Instead, find an outlet for expressing your positive and negative feelings in a healthy way. A few examples: writing in a journal, joining re-entry Facebook group, participating in a re-entry conference or talking with your study abroad advisor. 

2) Reflect on your identity. You no doubt feel changed by your experiences in Belize, but you may find it difficult to describe exactly how you’ve changed. Most returnees feel changed – even transformed – after study abroad and are disappointed when friends and family at home don’t readily notice those changes. What can help is reflecting on who you were before you went abroad, who you were while you were abroad, and who you are now. In what ways have you remained the same? In what ways have you changed? What did you learn while abroad? What (and who) is important to you now?

3) Re-frame re-entry. Most returnees look at re-entry as the end of their amazing global adventure and worry that going home means getting stuck in a boring rut. What if you were to think differently? 

Imagine you’re on a month-long road trip. It’s impossible to drive the entire way without stopping, so every once in a while you pull into a rest area. While there, you use the bathroom, check your navigation, flip through your road trip photos, and get some coffee.

Even though you’re not moving forward at that exact moment, you’re doing the things that will keep you moving towards your destination. So, you don’t sit at the rest area worrying that your road trip is over or that you’ll get stuck there simply because you’ve taken a break, right?

Of course not! You simply rest, reflect, and refuel -- because that’s exactly what you need to do in order to continue your journey.

What if you were to view re-entry as a rest area? As a place to rest, reflect, and refuel before continuing on your lifelong global journey?

Study abroad isn’t always easy but you made the most of it and thrived in a different country and culture. With these tips, you can thrive in re-entry, too!

About the Author:  Dr. Cate Brubaker is the author of the Re-entry Roadmap creative workbook and founder of SmallPlanetStudio.com, the go-to website for globetrotters who’ve lived abroad.

Guest Author: Dr. Cate Brubaker