What It Means to Become a Foreigner

When you are presented with the idea of moving abroad, the first thing that would come to you, of course, is apprehension mixed with a modicum of the sense of adventure, or perhaps even more than just a modicum. As the moving phase itself starts, you would be too busy thinking about what else needs to be done to take anything else into consideration.

Before you leave, you would have to bid proper farewell to friends and family, perform courtesy calls to people you respect, put everything into order. When you arrive in your host country, you take everything as it is and drown in initial euphoria. Then you spend some months in the country and realize how "different" you are. That is only when you will realize the true meaning of being a "foreigner".

Being a foreigner can be a lonely experience. For one, there might be nothing in your new country that can validate your identity. Everything is unfamiliar, everything seems to collate into a montage that does not validate your identity but instead does the exact opposite.

Not only would it be like that with things around you but also with places you go to when you seem to feel lost all the time. Every curve is unknown, every street would seem ominous, and you might feel literally like an alien from outer space.

Going to another country and being a "foreigner" deprive you of everything that defines you or at least what you think defines you. Just think about it. If anybody asks, "What makes you, you?" Every ordinary person would reply: friends, family, people, culture, hometown, political belief, and religious belief among others. If that is indeed your answer, would removing those from you prevent you from being who you are? Of course, this will not affect your being.

But you would definitely feel like it for a while. Everything that you think defines you is gone and for a while, you would feel empty and alone.

Believing in yourself

Being a foreigner is not just a matter of being of a different color and a different race or nationality. It is a matter of not being able to connect with anything around you that makes you feel extremely isolated. Being a foreigner is not just a product of external factors. People may tend to treat you a little differently because of language barriers or color difference. The only thing is that being a foreigner is at a psychological level.

If you "believe" yourself to be different, it would show. The body reflects one's state of mind. If you feel aloof, even if you try to hide it, people would feel aloof in turn. It is only a matter of how you see yourself to be.

You would never get to live like a local if you see yourself as a "foreigner". "But," you ask, "How do I see myself as a foreigner when I am different?" See it this way, you are not different, you are the same, you just do not know it yet.

Being a foreigner is a state of mind that you can overcome. It is not as hard as you think - you just have to be receptive of new ideas. It would not be quick, but it will come in time. Before you know it, you are no longer a foreigner.