When I was granted a scholarship to study in the Netherlands, I was overwhelmed with joy. It felt like a dream coming true. For a long time, I had believed that studying in Europe would open many opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back home in Kenya, I had heard many stories about the possibilities that existed there, especially in the Netherlands. Being selected for a master\u2019s program made me feel that my future was finally within reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I believed that after completing my master\u2019s degree, becoming a PhD student would also be possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some classmates would make fun of my accent. They would say they couldn\u2019t understand what I was saying and ask me to repeat myself again and again. At times, it felt humiliating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eventually, it became even harder during group discussions. There were moments when no one wanted me in their group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI felt lost and embarrassed.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The experience made me question my place in that environment and whether I truly belonged there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At one point, I travelled back to Kenya to visit my family. Being home felt comforting at first. But after about two weeks, one of my siblings asked me a simple question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen are you going back home?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They meant the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At that moment, I felt both sad and confused. I thought I was already home, surrounded by my family. But I realized something had changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was no longer fully part of the place I came from, and at the same time, I did not feel that I belonged in the place I had moved to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I call that space the in-between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI thought I was home with my family, but then I realized I wasn\u2019t really accepted anymore at the place I came from and I didn\u2019t fit in at my place of destination either.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I believe this feeling is part of the story of many migrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur lives exist in the in-between.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I was granted a scholarship to study in the Netherlands, I was overwhelmed with joy. It felt like a dream coming true. For a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":275,"template":"","story_category":[],"story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-221","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/here2gether.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/here2gether.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/here2gether.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/story"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/here2gether.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224,"href":"https:\/\/here2gether.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/221\/revisions\/224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/here2gether.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/here2gether.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/here2gether.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/here2gether.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_tag?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}