Nothing makes you feel uniquely nostalgic for American life than leaving for an extended period of time. All of sudden it brings to the forefront feelings of wanting to take long summer road trips or be at high school football games on Friday nights. I want to eat all the rootbeer floats and blast country music from my car radio.

The truth is in order to leave, you have to give up some of what you thought your life would look like in the next chapter for something very unknown. We envision the pieces that we can put together from our research but the reality is likely very different that we expect it to be. We hope that it will be worth the struggles and sadness of leaving to have a great adventure. We make trades.

I have been wanting to write this post for several weeks, knowing that all the goodbyes are looming, but through all the moving chaos, I wasn’t able to steal away the time needed to process it all. For myself, the sadness comes in waves, it’s like a slow breakup with your current life. There are many people who you have friendships with that will not end, they will transition into a different shape. But there are many people who exist in your peripheral, outside your strong friendships, that you will say goodbye to and likely never see again. Your favorite barista, the sweetest front desk ladies at your children’s school, the neighbors who walk dogs at the same time as you, they are the fabric of your daily life.

And to our wonderful little suburb, full of familiar faces and grocery store chats with friends; we will miss it in so many ways. Not everyone gets the chance to know and love a small town and we feel so grateful for the time in ours. So to wrap it up, I’ll share some of the many wonderful memories we made in the last few months…. surrounded by the people who make our lives so fun to live.

Part of the journey is the end and we are so grateful for the many of you who sent us off in style. The upside of goodbyes is getting the chance to share feelings, feel appreciated and tell all the people in your life how much they mean to you. I’m so grateful to the many of you who offered up advice, well wishes and favors along the way. It takes a village to move abroad and we hope we can see many of you again in Seoul or back home.