When things change...
As a child time passes without much realization. Years are
simply marked by Birthday's, school events, and Christmas. As a child the years
can slip by without much acknowledgement. A child takes the passing of time by only
truly tangible moments. Being an expat is similar.
See, in my opinion being an expat we too mark time in
tangible chunks. We mark the time of the current world we live in, however a
weird paradox happens and the time in the past "home" location begins
to freeze. We see ourselves and the space around us change, but the place we
left behind remains as it was in our visit, stay, or picture.
I am not saying that expat's are forgetful people who
avoided Birthday's and holidays but rather people who celebrate lacking the
tactile, visual knowledge of the passing of time. We are stuck in a time warp. For example the
notion of a death in the family, we miss the sickness, the hurt, the saying our
goodbyes, what we have is the last time we saw someone and the news of death.
Even on a lighter note, take life. The last time we saw "you," you
weren't married and now you’re pregnant with you first child. Time has passed
without us noticing.
The same freeze happens in reverse. As expats we hop on a
plane and move away, and we begin growing and changing. "Your” life
continues, however when we visit or move back the shocking moment occurs when
that 8 year old we moved with is now a moody teenager. Or better yet,
"we" (not me) had a baby.
Time ticks on a clock but in actuality time passes only as
we acknowledge it. Time stands still when we hold it as a memory and not an
experience. I write this simply to explain that as expats we miss you, and have
not forgotten you, we just may have forgotten things change in our absence.
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