The conversation went like this 'I am never going to be one of those old guys crying into their pints about missing the auld sod'. We vowed this to each other when newly arrived on foreign shores.
Over the years this turned into the conversation we never had about how hard it was to adapt and change to our new country. It wasn't cool to say 'it's hard' out loud. It wasn't cool to say 'how do I figure this out', 'how do I make the transition?'.
So we'd meet in the pub on Friday night and someone would say 'where is Johnny?' and someone would reply "oh he upped and left for home yesterday'. Someone else would say 'he couldn't hack it' and that would be the end of the conversation.
We were all afraid, afraid that it was contagious, afraid to talk about how we really felt, afraid to prove we weren't cool.
Over the years this turned into the conversation we never had about how hard it was to adapt and change to our new country. It wasn't cool to say 'it's hard' out loud. It wasn't cool to say 'how do I figure this out', 'how do I make the transition?'.
So we'd meet in the pub on Friday night and someone would say 'where is Johnny?' and someone would reply "oh he upped and left for home yesterday'. Someone else would say 'he couldn't hack it' and that would be the end of the conversation.
We were all afraid, afraid that it was contagious, afraid to talk about how we really felt, afraid to prove we weren't cool.
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