Re-entry After Travel: Becoming Green

I recently returned from a delightful ski vacation in Europe, and while it wasn’t a third-world cultural experience, I always find value in learning new perspectives, attitudes and practices from other countries and then try to incorporate them into my life back at home.  As a lifelong student of organizational culture, I’m naturally curious about what I can learn from seeing how other cultures operate. 

The challenge becomes how I take what I learned and try to fit it into my old life back at home. There is always an awkward and almost anxious moment of re-entry. When I’m wanting to hold on to new learning and at the same time going back to life as usual. 

When describing this feeling as a 23-year-old returning from a gap year, my dearest mentor comforted me with this analogy. I hope this helps you make peace with this feeling as well. 

Imagine your daily life as the “blue world”. Here at home, everything is blue—the people around you, the habits and customs of your neighbors, and even the routines and perspectives that shape your life. You’re comfortable in this familiar blue world and know exactly how to operate.

Then, you embark on a journey, crossing borders and entering a place where everything is different. The language, the road signs, the food in the stores, the atmosphere in the streets, and the clothes people wear—let’s call this new world, the “yellow world”. At first, this yellow world is dazzling, exciting and sometimes even downright disorienting. From your blue lens you seek to learn more about this yellow world. Your blue self is curious, captivated, and at times, perplexed.

But as you experience more yellow, you get more comfortable and start to fit in.  It starts to feel like you know what to expect. And soon, your blueness begins to pick up some hues of yellow, you notice this blend as you pick up phrases, savor new flavors, and perhaps find yourself dancing to new rhythms that feel both foreign and liberating. You’re still blue, but something shifts within you. Your edges soften, and yellow streaks begin to seep in. You’re becoming green.

Green feels invigorating and expansive, freeing you from the constraints of blue. You’ve experienced yellow, and see the merits of adding more yellow, and in some cases, your blue is beginning to fade into the background. 

Just when this is all beginning to blend nicely, it’s time for the trip to end. It’s time for your green self to head home. 

You fly home and are greeted by the ever-loving blue world that has been awaiting your return. But alas you are green. 

Now the once comfortable blue world feels foreign and a tad uncomfortable.  It’s hard to pinpoint, the re-entry anxiety takes hold. From the fog of jetlag you try to make sense of this disorientation.

Re-entry feels like trying to fit your expanded green-self back into this confining blue world.  Those that were left at home don’t know that you turned green while you were away. They still relate to you as if you are blue, but inside you know you are green and the chasm between you draws wider. This re-entry phenomenon can feel lonely and a bit sad.  The blue world expects you to seamlessly slip back into the life you left behind, but you’re not the same anymore. You’re green and explaining this new color to those who only see blue can feel like a futile effort.

It's true the pains of re-entry are real. It can be lonely and upsetting. The phenomenon of re-entry isn’t just about adjusting to time zones or tackling overflowing inboxes. It’s about reconciling your transformed self with a world that assumes you remain unchanged. 

My recommendation is to be easy on yourself and yet honor your greenness. Hold it like a gift inside your heart. 

The truth is, what you bring back from your travels, your adventures, and your bold steps into the unknown—these are gifts that enhance your life, enrich your world, and create memories that last a lifetime. Because your journey isn’t just about collecting passport stamps or ticking off bucket-list experiences. It’s about becoming a new version of yourself.

To age well and live fully is to learn from new cultures and welcome the process of becoming green- and with each new adventure comes an evolution of yourself. And when you find others who have dared to blend their own colors through exploration and shared experiences—you realize that you’re not alone in becoming green.