Thank you for purchasing the Way Home Guide and Starter Kit! We appreciate your patronage and your interest in going home! Listed below are the instructions on how to use our starter kit and assemble the pieces you need to go home successfully. Please read each step carefully before attempting to go home. Do not begin until you have read and understood every step in completion. 

Materials

Before you begin, please make sure each of the materials listed has been provided. If anything is missing or damaged, please stay calm and refer to the “Possible Replacements” list below. 

• 1 degree in something valuable
• Between 10 and 20 accomplishments
• 1 boyfriend/fiancé
• 1 dream job
• 2-4 drunk stories to tell
• Between 10 and 20 pounds of weight lost
• 1 driver’s license
• 1 cushy savings account
• 8–10 friends
• 10+ core memories

Possible Replacements

• 1 degree in humanities 
• Between 5 and 10 accomplishments
• No boyfriend, but a couple of unrequited crushes
• 1 back-up job
• 1 drunk story that you will exaggerate for laughs
• Between 10 and 20 pounds of weight gained
• No driver’s license, and no desire to get one
• 1 drained savings account
• 2–5 friends
• 10+ lessons learned the hard way

Step 1:

Put all of your materials on a table and lay them out. If you have missing materials, make sure to replace them with the items on the “Possible Replacements” list. (If your materials mostly consist of items from the “Materials” list, skip to Step 5. If not, continue to Step 2). 

Step 2: 

Spend a couple hours each day searching through the following websites: LinkedIn, Indeed, and Handshake. Save at least 10 possible job descriptions for each profile. Start realizing that your resume barely scratches the minimum requirements for any job. Wallow a little in self-pity. Start regretting all life decisions. Finally, land on sending out a couple of resumes in the hopes of landing a job. 

Step 3:

When your resumes result in 0 replies or inquiries, start thinking about that backup job you were offered a while ago. Consider the idea that going back home to teach at the small international private school you graduated from isn’t such a bad option. Realize that you would be a missionary teacher in Thailand and ruminate over the prospect of not having an income for the foreseeable future. After discussing it with your mom, who really wants you to move back home, apply for a teaching job in language arts at your alma mater. 

Step 4:

Post about your decision on social media. Definitely exaggerate how excited you are to be joining the mission field in Thailand. Receive a flood of encouraging comments that only exacerbate the imposter syndrome that’s been festering inside. Most importantly of all, keep it all to yourself. Don’t let anyone know that you feel as if you are settling for less. Convince yourself that this is a good step in life. 

Step 5:

Pack up everything. Anything you can’t pack up, sell, or donate. At the same time, shop endlessly for your graduation outfit. Spend time with friends for what is probably the last time in a while. Pretend everything is the same as it’s always been, but feel the clock tick away the time you spend with the people who have become some of your bestest friends. Graduate. Pack up your last bag. Fly back home. (If your materials mostly consist of items from the “Materials” list, skip to Step 10. If not, continue to Step 6). 

Step 6:

Spend the summer avoiding all of the things that are bothering you. Travel to Taiwan with your mom. Buy a ton of clothes because you need “professional” outfits. Live as if you have no care in the world, while every anxiety begins to crush your shoulders. But also eat some really good food, reconnect with a side of your life that had been dormant for so long, and rediscover just how fun it can be to live like a kid again. 

Step 7: 

Start working with kids. Leave the idea that you’re not good with kids behind and volunteer to help lead a group of kindergarteners through a summer camp program at the school you just got hired at. Go to a whole new province of Thailand with your sister and join in on a short-term mission trip with strangers that reignites your passion for gospel work. Join in on the work your father does in the mission field and start feeling as if you could really become a part of this ecosystem that had once seemed so foreign.

Step 8: 

Begin teaching language srts to high schoolers. Start of co-teaching with your boss, who was once your teacher, coach, and principal. Then, take over for the 9th-grade LA class, which will test your patience and make you question every ability you claim to have. Eventually, figure out that you can only do so much, and your guidance is all they really need from you. No parenting, they aren’t your kids. Connect with your students on a more personal level. Hear their worries and let them know that they aren’t wholly alone in all of this. Do your best to point them back to the God who loves them and has a plan for them, even as you continue to question the plan he has for you. 

Step 9: 

Have a mid-twenties crisis. Seriously start questioning every decision you’ve ever made. Watch your friends land great jobs, travel around the world, get engaged (even married), and seemingly live the ideal life. Break down crying in front of your dad after a bad day at work. Hear him tell you that your life is just as good as anyone else’s and that life should be lived at your own pace. Take in those words of encouragement, but never fully believe them. Recognize that your desire to be just as “successful” as everyone else may be the only thing motivating you to move forward in life. Realize that that mentality is rather fragile. Pray. 

Step 10:

Finally find some contentment and peace. Talk to some people. Talk to yourself. Talk to God. Find out that your twenties are just going to be filled with unknowns and that’s okay. Rediscover your childhood joys while fully embracing adulthood freedoms. Become just a little more responsible each day. Never take your family for granted again. And look forward to waking up each day to the sound of your father sweeping and to a pantry full of food you did not buy.

Priscilla Chang

Priscilla Chang (’25) majored in English literature and minored in linguistics at Calvin. She now works as a missionary teacher in Thailand, teaching language arts at Chiang Rai International Christian School. Apart from her love of reading and writing, she is also obsessed with learning languages, dancing, and watching the latest Korean dramas.