Category:

Expat Experiences

Finding Our Middle Ground in the Mid-South

by Erica Klinger September 1, 2020

Trailing spouses are forced to encounter change more than the average human, often without much support. In my 26 years as a Navy wife, my family has experienced 10 house moves, including five different states and one overseas tour. Throughout this adventure, I’ve continued prioritizing my professional advancement as a creative marketing professional. In the past, pursuing your own career dreams hasn’t been expected of military wives — but times are changing and I hope sharing my story publicly for the first time inspires others to never give up on their dreams.

Continued from Part 3 of Erica’s story…

After spending four years exploring Europe from our base at Naval Station Rota, the Klinger family headed back to the USA in 2008. This time, we were being introduced to another new culture: the Mid-South, a region nearly as foreign to my New Englander self as Spain had first seemed. This would also be an administrative assignment for my husband, so for the first time, we wouldn’t be living near the ocean.

We decided to live in Lakeland, a Tennessee town with great public schools and plenty of space for our three kids to grow up. It was close to Millington, where my husband was stationed, and only 45 minutes from downtown Memphis.

Career Transitions Coaching Expat Experiences Military Moves Trailing Kids

Lessons From a Trailing Kid: Career Resilience

by Ekua Cant August 3, 2020

written by Ekua Cant

As a trailing kid, you don’t really know what nationality you are; you adopt the culture and customs of the country around you. The three formative years I spent in America, where my father was stationed with the British Army, has had a profound impact on my life as an adult today; I even enjoy Hershey’s Chocolate, which most Brits can’t stand!

In addition to growing up in a military family, I am a Third Culture Kid (TCK) who has been raised in three different countries (the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States) by parents who come from Ghana.

Career Transitions Coaching Expat Experiences Military Moves Trailing Kids

Lessons From a Trailing Kid: Emotional Resilience

by Ekua Cant July 15, 2020

written by Ekua Cant

Change is constant, isn’t it? I’ve learned this to be at peace with this. In fact, I’m the kind of person who can remain upbeat and energetic in almost any situation.

My emotional resilience didn’t come naturally, however. I was a shy, middle child who found moving stressful and unsettling; it took a lot of effort for me to make new friends. But since my dad was a doctor in the British Armed Forces, our family was always moving to new postings: 1. 1986 – 1988 Bückeburg, Rinteln (Germany), 2. Bethesda, Maryland (USA) 1988 – 1981, 3. Bückeburg, Rinteln (Germany), 4. 1995- 2000 Fleet, Hampshire, 5. 2000 -2009 Hilsea, Portsmouth. On top of that, I was also a Third Culture Kid (TCK) navigating the cultural influences around me through the lens of my family’s Ghanaian origins.

Career Transitions Expat Experiences Trailing Kids

The Art of Adaptation as Foreign Service Spouse

by Sean McKee June 22, 2020

written by Sean McKee

To paraphrase from The Lord of the Rings, “One does not simply become a trailing spouse.” We may accept the idea of relocating for our partner’s career as a one-time event or even as a lifestyle, but it takes a lot of time and experience to completely adapt to the “trailing” part of the deal.

As a young adult, I became acquainted with some of the highs and lows of expat life by working in the Russian Far East in business skills education and international development through a program supported by USAID. And yet when I married Erin, a foreign service officer, I still had a lot to learn about how to balance raising a family and maintaining my professional interests with her frequent, somewhat unpredictable assignments.

Coaching Driving Distance Expat Experiences

Making Connections, Building Community

by Aditi Patil May 27, 2020

written by Aditi Patil

When I first heard the term “trailing spouse,” I had just moved to the United States. Being labeled took me by surprise, and I couldn’t help but cringe.

This wasn’t my family’s first move prompted by my husband’s marketing career — we had previously relocated from India to Malaysia and Singapore — or a new sense of struggle. With every move, I grappled with loneliness and a feeling of being uprooted, while managing my family’s transition, my career ambitions and my own emotional needs.

But going from Asia to North America was a more challenging culture shock.

Career Transitions Expat Experiences Military Moves

Viva la Vida Trailing Spouse

by Erica Klinger May 20, 2020

written by Erica Klinger

Continued from Part 2 of Erica’s story….

Three years after our relatively relaxing relocation from Virginia to New Hampshire, I was ready for my family’s biggest adventure yet: Naval Station Rota, Spain.

Or, so I thought.

Book Club Expat Experiences

Locked Down? C’est La Vie

by Brigid Keenan May 7, 2020

written by Brigid Keenan

Brigid Keenan, British author of the best-selling Diplomatic Baggage: The Adventures of a Trailing Spouse, accompanied her diplomat husband around the world for nearly 40 years — which, she says, turned out to be good practice for being locked down while far from home.

On February 26 — about a hundred years ago, or was it in another life? — my husband “AW” and I put our car on a cross-channel ferry and drove through France to a place called Elche, in Spain. We chose this destination, an extraordinary oasis probably planted by the Carthaginians, because AW is writing a book about date palms. Afterwards, we headed back north into France, to our little house in a village not far from Montpellier.

We had planned to stay about a week: sort out the small garden, clean the rooms, get it ready for summer and then leave. AW was booked on a Buddhist retreat in Scotland; I had to concentrate on the monthly column I write for The Oldie magazine. (I was looking forward to interviewing actress Sarah Miles, the long-ago star of “Ryan’s Daughter” and a rumored sequel in which she will play a grandmother.) But Fate had other ideas: within a few days of our arrival, the whole world turned upside down, with all travel, commitments, appointments and engagements abandoned.

Almost two months later, we are still here — locked down, with one change of clothes each — in our French valley.

Expat Experiences Trailing Kids

How Expat Life Prepared Me for COVID-19

by Crista Lindberg April 27, 2020

written by Crista Lindberg

Social distancing, digitally connecting, stockpiling supplies, wearing masks, homeschooling, working from home? My expat friends were the first to settle into these new norms, and are now seemingly unfazed. Meanwhile, my American friends who’ve never lived overseas were panicked or in denial from the start of this global coronavirus pandemic — and, weeks later, are still resisting new routines.

This has made me pause and ask: What really sets these groups apart? What critical skills have expats — trailing spouses, especially — mastered that are just now being learned by others facing unprecedented uncertainty for the first time?

Bucket Listing Coaching Expat Experiences

Love in the Time of Coronavirus

by Julie Marx March 5, 2020

written by Julie Marx

I’ve been a trailing spouse in China for six years. Until recently, everyone I’ve met immediately wanted to know, “Why did you move here?” In recent weeks, I’m more likely to get a different, but related question: “Why are you staying?” My answer remains the same: I love China, and I love the life my husband and I have built for ourselves here.

These days, when China has been making alarming headlines as the origin point of the coronavirus epidemic, this may not be the most popular or relatable opinion. But I’ve been a China nut for my entire adult life.

Career Transitions Driving Distance Expat Experiences Trailing Kids

Trailing & Being Trailed: Round 2

by Anusha Shrivastava February 26, 2020

written by Anusha Shrivastava

Continued from Trailing & Being Trailed: Round 1

Moving from New Delhi to New York for my husband’s career had rendered me unemployable overnight, due to my dependent spouse visa status and lack of a strong local network. Assessing my options, I went back to school for a second master’s degree; my mother generously flew in to help care for our baby son while I worked hard to resume my career as a journalist.

Graduating from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 2002 was exciting, but there was a shadow over this milestone because unlike most of my energized classmates, I could not yet apply for an internship or job. Until my American work authorization came through, my immigration status still meant that an employer would have to be willing to take on the significant hassle and cost of sponsoring me.