It takes a year, they say, to adjust to a big life change. New people. New surroundings. New country. But a year from when?
A year from when my visa was issued?
A year from the first few months spent moving from one place to the other?
A year from when I spent more than two solid months in country?
I don’t know if there’s a real answer, but I do know basing change and adjustment on a calendar is a bad idea. No one person adjusts to life change at the same pace. And no one has control over the unpredictable.
The best thing to do is develop an awareness. For me, that’s identifying patterns. Often patterns of behavior. Some of them don’t belong, or no longer apply. I can set about changing those, but there’s no way to set a time table, or look back and say “oh yeah, it’s been X months so I should be at this stage now.” If that were the case, I’d be in middle management at a large corporation with eight years of retirement contributions under my belt, a family, house and decent savings nest egg.
So while it takes a year, from which date is irrelevant.
The point is to keep moving forward. One day at a time.