Before we dive in, let me ask you something. Have you ever looked at yourself after moving countries and thought, I don't recognize who I am anymore? Well, if so, this mini episode is for you. Today we are talking about identity, the quiet shifts, the unexpected changes, and the woman you are becoming in this new place. Welcome to starting over in the USA, the Expat Woman's Guide to overcoming Homesickness, embracing cultural Differences, and creating a new home away from home. On this podcast, we talk about leaving behind the familiar, the pangs of homesickness and culture shock to the journeys of reinventing yourself. Happy New Year to you, expat Woman's. It's so lovely to be back again with another episode. You will find me here every Wednesday. Dishing it up with a fellow expat woman sharing her experiences and triumphs and the things that she wished she knew before she moved to the USA. And I'm also here on a Friday sharing perspective, ideas, tips that you can use to help you shape the life that you want. Right now, based on our experiences, and you have just caught me taking some very deep breaths. Maybe you can take some with me wherever you are, whether you are walking, cooking, driving, this is your moment to just chill out for another episode of starting over in the USA. Today I want to share something that's been sitting on my heart. Lately i've been thinking a lot about identity, who we were before we moved, who we thought we'd be when we got here, and who we are becoming right now in this, in this in-between space. It's been coming up in a lot of the conversations that I've been having with women in the expat community, and honestly, it's been coming up in my own life as well because as you know, we've recently moved back. My daughter has made her first best friends over there back in England. Her first community of buddies are over there, but she's over here. I have watched her on video calls with her friends and there's that mix of joy, but also a little bit of aching when she gets off the phone. The kind that only kids who've lived in two worlds really understand. So there's been some discussions and some consoling of emotions and lots of texts and emails and phone calls across the pond. I can certainly see it in her, how being away has drastically changed her within the space of a year. I look at myself, and I look at her and I think, wow. I've changed. Wow. She's changed. I didn't even notice it happening to me. I didn't notice it happening to her at all whilst we were there. I do feel as if there are days where I'm still searching for the version of me that existed before I moved here to the USA. Here's what I've been noticing and hearing from my expat community. More or less, every woman that I've talked to has had a moment or a sentence where she said, when I look at the way I used to be back at home and I look at myself now, I don't really recognize the two, or. I didn't expect to lose this part of me. Or even some people have even said, I didn't know I had this much strength until I moved. I'm beginning to realize that identity isn't just a concept, but it's something we feel in our bones. It shifts, it stretches, it breaks and it rebuilds, and sometimes it really surprises us. So here's what's coming up. We're going to talk to some women who've rebuilt themselves in ways that they've never imagined. Women who've lost careers and found purpose. Women who've left home and discovered new versions of home in themselves. Women who've struggled with the belonging and isolation and, and homesickness, and the cultural differences and the loneliness. All of those things that we know we do go through, regardless of where we've moved from and where we've moved to. Women who have dealt with reinvention and found their way through. We are going to explore the moments that you realize that you've changed. From leaving a version of yourself back at home to the joy of becoming somebody new. And this quiet, powerful truth, that identity is allowed to evolve, and it's not even just a matter of it being allowed. It happens one way or another. We are going to evolve. So who am I now? That's a question I have been asking myself, and I've been asking the people around me, and I want to bring you into this conversation too. So take a moment right now and think about this. Who were you before you moved, and who are you now? What's one thing that feels different? If you feel brave share it with me. Leave a comment, or you can drop it in the Spotify q and as, or send me a message on Instagram starting over USA or email me. I love hearing your stories. And for the woman who's just landing, if you are listening and you have just arrived in your new home away from home, whether it's here in the USA or anywhere else on the planet, maybe you are still surrounded by suitcases, this part is for you. You don't have to have it all figured out. You are allowed to be new. You are allowed to be unsure. You are allowed to grow at your own pace. That's what the rest of us have done. You are becoming somebody you haven't met yet. And I say that because I went through the very same experiences, the very same emotions that you are right now. It's challenging, it's trying. It's sometimes gonna make you feel a little bit sad. I want to encourage you that as long as you are safe and as long as you are healthy, as long as you are able to, stick with it, reach out to this community, it's far easier and far sweeter if you do it with other people who can support you. So before we close, a question to carry into your day; what's one part of yourself that you want to bring forward this year, and what's one part you are ready to release? I am gonna let that sit with you and. Oh, I'll, I'll definitely share mine with you. But that's it from me. If this episode stirs something in you, send it to one woman who's starting over because you just never know who might need it today. And follow the show so you don't miss the conversations that are coming up. They are powerful and I think they'll speak to you in ways you don't expect. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for spending these few minutes with me. I am Yolanda. This is starting over in the USA. We are going to keep figuring it out together. Have a lovely day. Bye-bye.