This is a comic I've been thinking about since October 2018, a couple months after getting back to the US. Getting back into the groove here was one of the most frustrating things I’ve experienced. My friends were spread out again, I had to commute to school long hours, and I didn’t have much time outside of school. (Which is also why it took me 10 + months to get this out. Although I think it’s for the better because it gave me some breathing room.)

I took a lot of notes about how I felt at that time, and felt I needed to put them out there. This comic does not and cannot express everything I feel, nor other people’s experience. But I have it on good word that my friends had similar feelings.

I wanted to create this not only for myself but for others who might be coming back from similar studies abroad. I found out that reverse culture shock is something people get not just from study abroad but any experience abroad, and it is much the same as culture shock you would feel initially. I know for myself that it took a solid 6 months of being in Japan to feel settled and begin really enjoying myself. So naturally it would be the same here.

Thanks for reading.