This story is adapted from a real interview with a young Nigerian woman who moved to Canada for study and life and later found that being away changed her relationships back home — emotionally and socially. 
When she first left Nigeria in 2016 to study law in Canada, the plan was simple: get educated, build a career, visit home when she could. But life abroad didn’t slow down for her — it moved. Classes, work, community, responsibilities, routines — all took her deeper into a life that gradually became her “everyday.” 
A few years in, she realized something unexpected:
she didn’t hate Nigeria — but she no longer fit comfortably in it.
Traffic, unpredictable systems, and the chaos she once knew so intimately felt overwhelming when she visited. 
She missed family events.
She missed big life moments — funerals, weddings, naming ceremonies — because visas, work, and schedules didn’t bend anymore. 
And when she finally returned in 2023, almost seven years later, she felt like a stranger among her own people. Friends had kids, jobs, routines she couldn’t relate to. Even cousins felt unfamiliar. 
She said: “I know I have to make an effort to stay connected, but life happens. It just felt a certain way… people have moved on in their lives.” 
Her support system now wasn’t blood relatives back home — it was her friends in Canada, the community she built there. 
Life abroad didn’t make her forget Nigeria — it just changed the nature of her belonging.
