Making the Best Decision: Considering a Move Abroad from Both Sides, Now

In this chapter, Jessica Cira Rubin reflects on the decision to leave the United States for an academic job opportunity in Aotearoa New Zealand. As a solo parent to a young child, this meant leaving behind support systems in her home country and imagining her son’s future alongside her own. The author offers a personal account and reflection about being in her new home long enough to see it a bit more clearly—both what it is and what she had hoped it would be. After acknowledging the space between illusion and experience, new opportunities for learning and connection started to emerge.