Launch to Landed

The Power of HomeThe concept of "home" is deeply complex for global nomads, expats, and third culture kids. In this inspirational episode, Doreen Cumberford welcomes Sam Frearson Tubito, author of Beneath a Borrowed Sky, to explore the emotional landscape of life in constant transition. Sam Frearson Tubito shares stories of living in 15 countries, raising third culture children, and her experience moving between places as both child and parent—highlighting the energy, mindset, and vulnerability required for each new arrival, as well as the often-overlooked challenge of staying put.Together, Doreen and Sam discuss generational patterns of mobility, the subtle influence of ancestry, the art of creating community, and how the skills needed to ‘arrive’ and ‘leave’ differ profoundly from those required to truly stay. The episode reflects on the importance of agency, open communication within families, and embracing both the adventure and the complexity of a globally mobile life.Key Themes & InsightsArriving, Leaving, and StayingSam Frearson Tubito is adept at starting over—making arrivals and departures into an art form, but finds "staying" the most confronting and challenging part of nomadic life 02:32.Emotional and physical tolls increase with age and repeated moves, sometimes making transition unexpectedly exhausting 05:09.Agency & Making the Choice to StayAfter many moves for work and family, Sam Frearson Tubito describes reclaiming personal agency by choosing to settle in Modena—a decision driven by the desire for belonging and supported by a strong community 07:06.Raising Third Culture KidsDrawing from her own traumatic boarding school experience, Sam Frearson Tubito and her husband prioritized keeping the family unit together to foster belonging.They actively prepared their children for each new culture and language, opting for international schools and focusing on open, empathetic family communication 14:30.Rooted vs. Flying: Embracing Family DifferencesThe episode explores the dynamic between ‘rooters’ (those who put down roots) and ‘flyers’ (those who keep moving)—even within the same family—and the freedom and challenges of letting each person choose their own path 22:15.Belonging, Ancestry, & IdentitySam Frearson Tubito discusses the subtle, sometimes subconscious impact of ancestry and generational mobility on one's sense of belonging and ‘home’ 28:14.The Power of CommunityRebuilding community in every location is essential for resilience and feeling at home. Sam Frearson Tubito underscores the therapeutic power of friendships and support systems 26:17.Staying Put: New Skills & VulnerabilityChoosing to stay—and commit—requires vulnerability, new emotional skills, and a willingness to face uncertainty, which can be even more challenging than moving 34:12.Quotable Moments"The certainty up to now has been the moving. The uncertainty now is the staying." 10:18"Staying requires vulnerability. It requires consistency and trust in a completely different way." 34:12"The skills that took us away are not the skills that will bring us home." 34:23"Go for it. But don’t think it’s just all positives. Prepare yourself, do your homework, but be fully present wherever you go." 34:39Guest BioSam Frearson Tubito is a globally raised author and third culture kid, whose memoir Beneath the Borrowed Sky delves into the realities of growing up and raising a family across continents. She advocates for community building and honest family communication in an ever-changing world.ResourcesSam Frearson Tubito’s website: wanderingidentity.comInstagram: @wanderingidentityBeneath the Borrowed Sky — available on Amazon worldwideWe would love to hear from you, send us a text please!Support the showYou can map the move. You cannot map the metamorphosis. Nomadic Diaries explores the interior journey of expat life — the belonging, the identity shifts, the repatriation, and everything that travels with you that can't be packed in a suitcase. Browse the full catalog at nomadicdiariespodcast.com and please share or leave a review if this episode resonated.

The brochure price of a new life abroad is rarely the real one. Doreen looks at the true cost of living, banking and currency swings across borders, finding health insurance and local care, and why a cushion for the unexpected may be the best thing you pack.Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries. In ten-minute episodes, Doreen Cumberford draws on fifty years of life across eight countries and four continents to guide you from the first thought of moving to the long road home. Whether you’re dreaming, packing, living abroad or heading home, there’s a letter for you.Share this episode with someone who’s standing at one of those thresholds: a new country, a return home, or simply a life that’s asking them to become someone they haven’t quite met yet.nomadicdiariespodcast.comWe would love to hear from you, send us a text please!Support the showYou can map the move. You cannot map the metamorphosis. Nomadic Diaries explores the interior journey of expat life — the belonging, the identity shifts, the repatriation, and everything that travels with you that can't be packed in a suitcase. Browse the full catalog at nomadicdiariespodcast.com and please share or leave a review if this episode resonated.

How you leave shapes how you land. Doreen explores why saying goodbye well, to people, places, pets and possessions, matters as much as any arrival, and shares simple leaving rituals that help you close the door without slamming it.Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries. In ten-minute episodes, Doreen Cumberford draws on fifty years of life across eight countries and four continents to guide you from the first thought of moving to the long road home. Whether you’re dreaming, packing, living abroad or heading home, there’s a letter for you.Share this episode with someone who’s standing at one of those thresholds: a new country, a return home, or simply a life that’s asking them to become someone they haven’t quite met yet.nomadicdiariespodcast.comWe would love to hear from you, send us a text please!Support the showYou can map the move. You cannot map the metamorphosis. Nomadic Diaries explores the interior journey of expat life — the belonging, the identity shifts, the repatriation, and everything that travels with you that can't be packed in a suitcase. Browse the full catalog at nomadicdiariespodcast.com and please share or leave a review if this episode resonated.

The paperwork is the part of moving abroad everyone underestimates. Doreen covers why you should start visas and residency earlier than you think, which papers people forget, and why one red folder and a visit in the season you dread most can save you a world of trouble.Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries. In ten-minute episodes, Doreen Cumberford draws on fifty years of life across eight countries and four continents to guide you from the first thought of moving to the long road home. Whether you’re dreaming, packing, living abroad or heading home, there’s a letter for you.Share this episode with someone who’s standing at one of those thresholds: a new country, a return home, or simply a life that’s asking them to become someone they haven’t quite met yet.nomadicdiariespodcast.comWe would love to hear from you, send us a text please!Support the showYou can map the move. You cannot map the metamorphosis. Nomadic Diaries explores the interior journey of expat life — the belonging, the identity shifts, the repatriation, and everything that travels with you that can't be packed in a suitcase. Browse the full catalog at nomadicdiariespodcast.com and please share or leave a review if this episode resonated.

The honeymoon always ends, often in a queue at the bank. Doreen explains why the frustration that follows is normal, not failure, and shares one simple tool for getting through the hard weeks.Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries. In ten-minute episodes, Doreen Cumberford draws on fifty years of life across eight countries and four continents to guide you from the first thought of moving to the long road home. Whether you’re dreaming, packing, living abroad or heading home, there’s a letter for you.Share this episode with someone who’s standing at one of those thresholds: a new country, a return home, or simply a life that’s asking them to become someone they haven’t quite met yet.nomadicdiariespodcast.comWe would love to hear from you, send us a text please!Support the showYou can map the move. You cannot map the metamorphosis. Nomadic Diaries explores the interior journey of expat life — the belonging, the identity shifts, the repatriation, and everything that travels with you that can't be packed in a suitcase. Browse the full catalog at nomadicdiariespodcast.com and please share or leave a review if this episode resonated.

You will rarely feel ready to move abroad, and that’s exactly the point. Doreen looks at the gap between fear and readiness, shares stories of people who moved later in life or against the odds, and offers small acts of courage that prove to yourself what’s possible.Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries. In ten-minute episodes, Doreen Cumberford draws on fifty years of life across eight countries and four continents to guide you from the first thought of moving to the long road home. Whether you’re dreaming, packing, living abroad or heading home, there’s a letter for you.Share this episode with someone who’s standing at one of those thresholds: a new country, a return home, or simply a life that’s asking them to become someone they haven’t quite met yet.nomadicdiariespodcast.comWe would love to hear from you, send us a text please!Support the showYou can map the move. You cannot map the metamorphosis. Nomadic Diaries explores the interior journey of expat life — the belonging, the identity shifts, the repatriation, and everything that travels with you that can't be packed in a suitcase. Browse the full catalog at nomadicdiariespodcast.com and please share or leave a review if this episode resonated.

Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from What does “permanent” really mean when you move abroad? Doreen looks at why people go, how a chosen move differs from a company posting, and the one question to ask yourself before you commit.Nomadic Diaries. In ten-minute episodes, Doreen Cumberford draws on fifty years of life across eight countries and four continents to guide you from the first thought of moving to the long road home. Whether you’re dreaming, packing, living abroad or heading home, there’s a letter for you. Share this episode with someone who’s standing at one of those thresholds: a new country, a return home, or simply a life that’s asking them to become someone they haven’t quite met yet.We would love to hear from you, send us a text please!Support the showYou can map the move. You cannot map the metamorphosis. Nomadic Diaries explores the interior journey of expat life — the belonging, the identity shifts, the repatriation, and everything that travels with you that can't be packed in a suitcase. Browse the full catalog at nomadicdiariespodcast.com and please share or leave a review if this episode resonated.

Two suitcases, 31 days, one letter at a time. In this opening episode, Doreen explains why every move abroad is really two journeys, the one you can map and the one you can’t, and invites you to ask yourself where you are on the road right now. Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries. In ten-minute episodes, Doreen Cumberford draws on fifty years of life across eight countries and four continents to guide you from the first thought of moving to the long road home. Whether you’re dreaming, packing, living abroad or heading home, there’s a letter for you. Share this episode with someone who’s standing at one of those thresholds: a new country, a return home, or simply a life that’s asking them to become someone they haven’t quite met yet.We would love to hear from you, send us a text please!Support the showYou can map the move. You cannot map the metamorphosis. Nomadic Diaries explores the interior journey of expat life — the belonging, the identity shifts, the repatriation, and everything that travels with you that can't be packed in a suitcase. Browse the full catalog at nomadicdiariespodcast.com and please share or leave a review if this episode resonated.

Fifty years. Eight countries. Two suitcases. Now 31 days.Welcome to Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad, a NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries. Every day this November, Doreen Cumberford brings you one ten-minute episode, built around one letter. The series runs from the first “what if we moved abroad?” to the homecoming nobody warns you about.Whether you’re dreaming, packing, living abroad or heading home, there’s a letter for you.New episodes daily, 1 to 30 November. Follow so you don’t miss one.nomadicdiariespodcast.comWe would love to hear from you, send us a text please!Support the showYou can map the move. You cannot map the metamorphosis. Nomadic Diaries explores the interior journey of expat life — the belonging, the identity shifts, the repatriation, and everything that travels with you that can't be packed in a suitcase. Browse the full catalog at nomadicdiariespodcast.com and please share or leave a review if this episode resonated.

About our GuestSimon D. spent fifteen years running his own renovation business in Hamilton, Ontario, before he and his wife swapped Canadian life for Belize in 2022, a country they first fell for on their babymoon. Leaving his trade behind, he turned to content writing just as large language models arrived, and rather than retreat, he went all in. Today he helps founders and small businesses build AI integrations and automations, hosts the podcast Foreign Radio, and writes about life abroad on Substack. His newest project, MoveSmart, brings those two worlds together: an AI tool built to help people decide where in the world they might thrive.What You’ll Walk Away WithDoreen and Simon explore self-initiated expatriation and the gap between the holiday version of a place and the lived one. Simon describes a pattern he sees again and again in Belize: people sell everything, ship their belongings, build a house, and are gone within eight to twelve months. His own family took two and a half years to feel truly at home. He talks about smashing the rose-coloured glasses, from months of sargassum on the beach to the quaint old town where you can never find parking, and shares a wonderfully telling story about high- and low-context communication at the immigration office, where the right question unlocked a stack of paperwork the wrong one never would have. An honest conversation about building and using your own judgement when moving overseas. Connect with Simon Email Simon at [email protected] can find him on Substack at Simo’s Substack, read his AI writing at BotBot, and connect with him on LinkedIn as Simon D.https://simod.me/https://movesmart.world/Share this episode with someone who’s standing at one of those thresholds — a new country, a return home, or simply a life that’s asking them to become someone they haven’t quite met yet.We would love to hear from you, send us a text please!Support the showYou can map the move. You cannot map the metamorphosis. Nomadic Diaries explores the interior journey of expat life — the belonging, the identity shifts, the repatriation, and everything that travels with you that can't be packed in a suitcase. Browse the full catalog at nomadicdiariespodcast.com and please share or leave a review if this episode resonated.