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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