2 Years Deep

   I notice people now, who don’t know how to ride my morning bus.  And I think they are a little silly, because they don’t know how we operate.  I prepare our family coffee based on what has been working best for me this Winter.  Because I’m in charge of the coffee.  If I am awake late or up early, I can find my clothes in the dark.  They are in the same place I put them every day, organized by type.  You have lived a version of this life as well. This is being two years deep into a change.

   Two years is a pleasant mix between familiarity and novelty. Everything has a system but all the systems feel new.  I know how to lead the students in my specific school in a classroom debate, but I will still be surprised by how they respond to the class.  I know my wife will feel cared for when I make a special meal, but I still hear stories about family meals I never heard before.  I think two years is a natural high in the change process.

   I think about when my church used to send people to other countries to serve.  I was always in awe of those opportunities.  “Wow, you live in another country!” I thought.  “You are serving people in another country!”  The physical act of existing somewhere else was thrilling.  But existing elsewhere is a pretty tiny goal.  Two years into living in another country, I have started to ask myself.  “What am I doing in this other country?”  There is definitely more to being a blessing in a foreign country than living there!  And two years in I am starting to figure out how to do more than live here.

    My friend called me from Mexico the other day.  He moved there one year before I moved to Spain.  He went with some definite goals and some sense of what his time would look like trying to be helpful abroad.  Three years in, he has seen enough of what his life is like to start imagining the future in Mexico.  And the future he imagines is making him miss home.  He misses being effective.  He misses being a good communicator.  He is weary of trying to live life in a second language.  

    This week I came across a new concept (Here): Lewin’s Change Theory.  It posits three phases of change: Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze.  If I look at it through the perspective of an international move, I see ways that I am living the refreeze.  The tasks I had to learn to function here are becoming more customary.  I can take care of my daily routines more quickly.  I know better what decisions will bring success in Madrid.  I am really enjoying this re-establishing of norms. I am excited to keep living this refreeze phase!