Where Is Home
A conversation with my friend and fellow founder Izumi, on identity, belonging, and what it means to feel at home in yourself.
I had a conversation with my friend and fellow founder Izumi recently, for her channel. We're both multicultural, both know what it is to belong to more than one place, and to none, all at once. That's where the conversation started: identity, and where it actually comes from when you've moved abroad, moved back, moved again.
I told her the truth. I've had plenty of crises of identity and belonging because of it. Coming back hasn't been easy. I don’t feel French or British but kind of feel I am a bit of both to all at the same time. So who am I, underneath the passports and the places I've called home?
I've never wanted to be pigeonholed "the French girl" because it was never about where I'm from. It's a question of who you are underneath everything. Who you truly are.
That not-knowing taught me things I wouldn't trade back. It taught me to move away from my comfort zone, to live comfortably in uncertainty. To let go of who I thought I had to be, because if you don't let go, you can't move on, you can't adapt. And strangely, that letting go, over and over, is what built my trust in myself. Not in spite of the uncertainty. Because of it.
I see the same thing in so many of you. A loss almost of identity putting yourselves last, feeling disconnected from your own voice, carrying everyone else's emotional weight. And underneath it, that quiet question: what do I need?
This is why I work the way I do. My own journey shapes how I support you now because adapting is all I've ever known since my 20’s. To rebuild, no matter what. One step in front of the other. It's taught me to listen deeply, and to hold space without rushing to fill it. Because once there's space, there's possibility. And that changes everything.
So Where is Home?
So where is home, in the end? I don't think it's a country. I don't think it's even a city. I think it's your centre, wherever your heart is.
If this stirred something in you, if you're navigating your own questions of identity, change, or belonging right now this is exactly the work I do in Personal Guidance. Let's have a conversation: book a 10-min connection call
Want to hear more from Izumi and me? Watch the full conversation on Cut & Polished, our new coffee chat series on culture, identity, and home → OUR CHANNEL