I have been struggling to find a place that feels like home since the day I moved to the States 10 years ago. Home for me is somewhere you could feel comfortable in the environment, or even the air feels “comfortable”. After giving some thought to this, I have decided to move back home, to Vietnam.
There are a lot of people including my family questioned my decision; but fortunately, my best friends supported me, they said this would be better for me, both mentally and physically. As they would know how miserable I am about my life in the States; such as constantly feel incomplete, in depression, like there is always something missing in my life.
“Are you sure?”, “Where do I start?”, “How?”, ”Can I do it?”
Those questions have been in my head since the day I decided to move back to Vietnam, after 10 years in the States. To be honest, I’m scared even though I do speak the language, at least I could understand the people, but it’s like a good kind of scared like you’re doing something right. I just don’t know where to start or how to do it. Those questions helped me organized my thoughts, my process of moving home, and how I deal with it.
I often wonder how other people deal with this when they made the same decision, were they as confused and terrified as I am, or are they more sure? After listening to a podcast episode of “GET REAL” with Jackson Wang (episode 34) on Spotify, I have decided to deal with those feelings of moving back home.
A lot of people struggle with the thoughts or feelings of being failures in life when moving back home. Since people tend to move away from home to have a better life, but somewhat a small percentage still want to move back after sometimes; for certain, such as because of money issues, family matters, or even job opportunities? But why would people consider moving back home as a type of failure if it’s better for you?
Since now that I have my questions, I need to find answers to each of them. So how did I start with my moving home plan? I applied for a form to extend my stay in Vietnam for more than just 6 months (a Green cardholder cannot be out of the U.S. for more than 6 months). The form is quite costly (>$600), it required you to stay in the country until you have your biometric and picture taken. Then when you got approve, USCIS will issue a passport look-alike and that is your “form” for staying in Vietnam for more than 6 months.
After that, I started packing and shipping stuff back to Vietnam. Packing is the worst part about moving, you donate like half of your closet and you still have tons of stuff left. I donated a lot of the things I haven’t touch and wear in a year and felt good about it. Shipping stuff back to Vietnam was quite simple, there are Vietnamese shipping companies all over the country that ship straight to Vietnam.
From there on, all I have to do is wait for Vietnam to be “open for business” so I could travel home. The process is quite stressful, but I feel like the outcome would be very worthwhile. I would be happier, might be more successful, because I believe, your success comes from your happiness.
