By KAREN ARMSTRONG
Life design for expat women is absolutely necessary due to the unique factors in our lives: location, language skills, cultural integration and local laws, to name a few.
In the spring of 1995, I was in Rome doing a semester study abroad during my junior year of college. As often happens with those who visit the land of “la dolce vita”, I fell hard and fast in love with the Italian language and culture and vowed to return.
Later, as a U.S. Navy officer, I was stationed on a ship home-ported in Japan. Experiencing the Japanese culture was difficult as we were often underway, but I had time for personal exploration in the ship’s small library during long days at sea. A cassette tape of Wayne Dyer’s How to Be a No-Limit Person set me on a path of possibility and personal growth.
Six years later I left my regimented life in the service and pursued my dream of going to Italy. I’d teach English for a while and then get on with my “real life” in the United States.
My plan was extended indefinitely when I fell in love again – this time with an Italian naval officer I’d eventually marry. I was where I wanted to be, with the love of my life — yet at 30, I discovered living in Italy as an expat was quite different from the “bella vita” of a tourist. Work opportunities were limited, convenience and organization lacking. I was suspended between two worlds – my new home and my country of origin — neither of which I was fully part.
Gail Sheehy’s Passages urged me to pursue a fundamental task: re-designing my life. I had successfully broken free of the protective shell of the Navy, made my way back to Italy. Now I had to find a way to further integrate my life and love abroad with a newly revealed passion: life coaching.
How have you re-designed your life as an expat woman?
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Karen Armstrong is a life design coach and founder of Expat Women Entrepreneurs. She lives in Tuscany.
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WELCOME BACK. Identity adventurers like you make this global niche what it is -- so, thanks!
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Catherine…
You bring up a great point: re-designing your life is an ever-evolving process. As you grow in your experiences, formerly unknown parts of yourself come to light and you start to see new possibilities for your life.
Anastasia…
You said it exactly: we discover new paths in our lives precisely because we’re no longer in the familiar comfort zone of our home country. Being an expat is a phenomenal opportunity for growth.
Isik…
Thank you for your kind words! I enjoy sharing my journey with others and I love hearing other women’s inspirational stories.
I am really amazed by the stages of awareness Karen has journeyed to discover her true self. What is more fascinating is that she has managed to turn what is in her heart into a profession which she practices with joy and excitement. A real inspiration to all our women friends who are seeking to step up and take the first step into finding what they love and doing what they love. Thanks for sharing the very beginning of your journey with us Karen
Thanks for sharing this journey Karen!
For those who don’t know, I met and worked with Karen this spring when she was customizing a life design course for mobile women like us. Our expatriatism was a major factor to juggle, to find solutions around and through — and eventually, to discover avenues for our lives and work that are only possible *because* we are living and working outside of our original territories….much like what Catherine reports about her choices inspired by both her background and her current surroundings.
My life has been in a perpetual state of re-design since I became an expat 10 years ago. I took my clothing and interior design and merchandising skills from California with me to a small touristic town in Western Turkey. These skills morphed into creating a vintage textile and jewelry shop first to capitalize on my treasure-hunting talents, and later a waterpipe bar decorated in a blend of Turkish and California beach town style that was a magnet for travelers from all corners of the globe.
Next up? Organizing local artisans and searching for craftspeople that still make things the old world way, in our Ephesus region and beyond to my husband’s hometown of Mardin in the southeast. And we’ll continue to re-design as long as we are breathing…the possibilities are endless!