I still remember the Facebook post I created when I left Stuttgart and moved to Michigan - it was linked to a quote from one of my favorite fridge magnets -
"Something will grow from all of this... and it will be me."
And yet, exactly four years later, I am here - a couple of more fridge magnets collected on the way :) - and can judge whether this statement turned out to be true.
For sure others might be better at judging this, but I still feel confident in saying - yes, it's true. I grew. I learned new things, I questioned myself (a lot) & I might have lost a bit of that German-ness along the way (although there's still plenty of that left ;)...).
Coming here four years ago, everything happened quite fast - a bit more than two months from making the decision to move to my first day at a new job in a new role, a new team & a new location. Looking back, there are things I might have done differently and I learned a lot on the way.
One of the things I was kind of hoping for was that there would have been more expats like me - single and eager to explore a new country on their own. Except there weren't - I learned after some time that me coming as a single woman was kind of a more unique case (not saying that there aren't any others but most were coming as couples or families - and I still tell my story of my one & only visit of the women's happy hour ;) ...).
However, this experience made me stronger - looking back at it now. For sure I dearly missed friends and family from Germany. And I will go back to Europe now & will miss the friends I found here.
I met amazing people along the way, teaching me how open and friendly you can be (compared to the often not so open mindset of what I experienced in Stuttgart) and was pleasantly surprised when I got help from others while being sick at home.
We shared a lot of great experiences and this helped me to start feeling at home in Michigan.
A special thank you goes out to my chorus girls (I'm so happy we were able to catch up on a regular base even after I couldn't join anymore!), my friends from work, the Bosch men who allowed me to join their happy hour club (I learned how to keep quiet during a complete soccer match :) ) & my guys from BEG!
Thanks a lot to all of you for being there in good & bad times, for a lot of (inappropriate) jokes, great experiences & making memories! I will miss you & hope to be able to see you again (soon) on a business trip or - invitation ! - when you happen to be in Germany.
Besides this, I was - and still am - amazed on the friendliness of a lot of people I met here. I'm greeted so nicely and quite often have a great chat when I'm in my favorite Starbucks in Northville (which for sure could also mean I'm spending too much money); just today I was at the Fossil Outlet Store & got recognized by three of the employes who remembered me and my story (same thing about the spending here ...); often when I was traveling alone I had a chance of meeting amazing people and spending a bit (or more) time with them.
Thinking about the move back, there will be an awful lot of things I will be missing - starting from the wonderful lake view of my apartment to the ease of going grocery shopping seven days a week to working in a great (even though stressful) team with occasional travel to the West Coast to traveling & exploring the country (which I want to keep now when going back!) ...
But most of all, I will miss everybody who made my time here such a great experience!
Thanks a lot to all of you (I hope it's ok if I post those pics if not please let me know :)) !!!
