I still call Australia home

I don't consider patriotism a virtue. Is it not presumptuous to believe you had such fortune that by chance you live in a country that is objectively the pinnacle of societal, cultural and economic progress out of the 200-odd other candidates? But it's love! Love for one's country and there is no rationalist's explanation for what love is, the state's psychological captives will cry. Love between a person and their country must be expressed via some medium and, unless I've been uninformed, are the methods by which one does express love for their nation not public? And does this not therefore constitute as pride not love? Nevertheless, I still get misty-eyed when I hear the morning warbles of the Adelaide magpies through the phone while speaking with my wife.

It's been over two years since I've been home. My thoughts on the flight two years ago were how to expedite the green card process such that I would have the ability to decouple my right to stay in the US with my employment status. The assumption was that it would be "a very long engagement" with the US. And as with many other expats, things changed in March 2020. Since then it felt like the tacit goal was to break off the engagement and end the love story. It wasn't until late 2020 when it evolved into tangible plans for our emigration from the US. My wife was first to leave with me hot on her heels in the coming months. We had "optimized" everything from the flight timing, to quitting our jobs to buying a house and visiting family members interstate. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men.

It was some time between the third travel cap reduction and my second flight cancellation that I knew it was back to a long engagement with the US. Australia had long forgotten about the plight of the expat. I could feel the black shoots of depression push through my relatively optimistic outlook. It permeated the trivialities of my day-to-day from adopting an internal monologue that was cynical and darkened. But it was the friends that reached out that gave me the epiphany about patriotism. It's not the country one loves, it's the people. So I suppose no matter how far or wide we roam I will still call Australia home.

Published on September 17, 2021