When I first arrived, I thought finding a place to live and getting a job would be the hardest parts. Those were important, but they weren’t the parts that stayed with me the most. What stayed was the feeling of not quite belonging. It wasn’t always obvious. Most days, things worked. I went about my routine, spoke to people, got things done. On the surface, everything looked fine. But underneath, there was a quiet distance I couldn’t ignore. It showed up in small ways. Conver

When people talk about resilience, it often sounds like something strong and intentional. Like a decision you make, or a quality you carry with you. But for me, it didn’t feel like that. Most of the time, it just felt like continuing. When I first moved, everything felt unfamiliar in ways I didn’t expect. Not just the language or the systems, but the small things. How people interacted, how things worked, what was expected of you. It felt like I was constantly adjusting, even

When I first moved, I didn’t think about identity. I thought about practical things, work, housing, how to get around, how to settle in. Everything felt immediate, like there was always something that needed attention. There wasn’t much space to think beyond what needed to be done. But over time, something else started to surface. It wasn’t obvious at first, and it didn’t arrive all at once. It showed up in small moments, in conversations, in how I responded to simple questio