The syndrome of expatriates

I am not a doctor, but I might have discovered a disease that applies to each person leaving its home country. To explain it, I’ll take the example of Lebanese leaving Lebanon to live in France, but this would apply to any expatriate in the world. Here is a chronological list of the symptoms experienced from the first time moving from the home country:

1st: Arriving in France, the patient is shocked and feels very uncomfortable, wondering why he decided to move to France.
2nd: The patient doesn’t like anymore Lebanon and believe that France is the best place ever.
3rd: The patient hate France, the French people and everything linked to France; and believe that Lebanon was the best place ever!
4th: The patient feels the need to be more integrated in France, and consequently try to forget its origins.
5th: The patient realizes that he should not have forgotten where he come from, and decides to spend longer holidays in Lebanon. But, here is a second shock!! He realizes that he is no longer a real Lebanese, but something like half French / half Lebanese. The problem is that he can no longer stand some aspects of Lebanese culture.
6th: Then, the sixth symptom is experienced by the patient for the rest of his life (until some researcher will find a cure…). The patient feels that he belong to both countries, but loves and hates both at the same time. Actually, not exactly at the same time: when he lives in France he hate it and thinks he’d better go back to Lebanon, and when he comes back to Lebanon he hate it and the only thing he want is France!!

What an awful disease! The final drawback is that the patient doesn’t feel any more comfortable in any country in the world. But the final reward is to become a more interesting person, that have faced challenges in life, discovered new cultures and who knows how to reassess itself.