For many young American adults returning to the USA to attend college or university after being expats or global nomads since they have been following their parents careers overseas, “Sophomore Slump” starts after about 6 weeks in the new university.  This is when it dawns on them that their lifestyle of travel is now over.  No more vacations in foreign countries on long weekends. No more traveling to and from exotic places at Christmas. No more team sports that causes you to carry a passport.

Some global nomads find the start of college so hard but can usually settle down into the new system soon. This is when it is key to have some sort of support system on campus. Or near by. Teens are often good at masking what is going on for them by text or even skype. They seldom want to admit to their parents that things are not going as well as they wanted.

Changing Universities

Sophomore slump hits repatriated teens often and they show how upsetting this is by changing universities.

If you look closely at the retention rate in a university from freshman to sophomore at some schools it is alarming. What is causing all these teens to try one university for just a year and move on? Most of the time it is not because of grades but because they are finding a ‘slump’ or the excitement of the university does not match up to their expectations.

As the author of Emotional Resilience and the Expat Child, I am greatly concerned about these children as they return to the USA to attend university in their home country. I often feel we have not prepared the child enough for this transition without their family.

Two children = Two Locations

Since our two children decided to look at two very different locations for college, it has complicated our travel plans. Colorado is a state that receives many teen repatriating because it is such a lovely state. Toronto is also known for it’s high rate of international students. Many expat children do not have a ‘home’ so they pick a geography site that they love.  Then the match of a university to this location to the child’s long term goals is applied.  This is hard for many families.

We are slowly approaching our second year in this location, Balikpapan. In our short time here, we have already seen a large amount of turnover in the Expat population. The things that have bothered me the most during this expatriate move without children are:

•    My easy lifestyle of booking four tickets to one place is no longer possible. We now have to book three different travel plans to get to one place.

•    I no longer want to go on long weekends out of the country since I am saving up my days to be with my kids.

•    My kids have done the exotic places for Christmas and now wish to do something more relaxing and mainstream.

•    My passport does not get used as much as it did since I am not traveling to see my kids in all those high school events that international schools are so good at setting up.

Contributed by Julia Simens, an American writer who has lived on five continents and raised two TCKs. Her book "Emotional Resilience and the Expat Child: practical storytelling techniques that will strengthen the global family" is commonly found in many international schools and embassies where she gives talks to parents, teachers and families living a global lifestyle. Find her blog at http://www.jsimens.com