Migration for any reason requires a reshuffling of the Self - a simultaneous dissolving of previous internal structures that have defined who we were and a sudden widening of the field of who we could be. If well-supported, it has the potential to be liberating and transformative. Migration can allow us to keep the best of who we are while shedding what no longer works for us and stretching toward our desired selves.
But too often we fall through the cracks in this process, in which we leave behind the jewels of our previous identity while our hands grasp empty-air, reaching for what might be.
When we do not have truly welcoming, supportive structures onto which to scaffold ourselves as we become towards the future, we fall into a space of limbo in which we are neither dead nor fully alive.
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"No one knows the real me here."
"Am I doing it wrong?"
"Who I am here, in this place?"
"How does this place work?"
"How do I make it make sense?"
"I feel like a shell of myself."
"What's the point of trying?"
"How do others see me?"
"Where is my home?"
"I'm always second-guessing myself."
"Will I ever belong to this place?"
"Was it a mistake to come here?"
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