A Decade in Thailand: Building a Home Far From Home

I woke up with my bedroom door slightly opened, letting the cool breeze of Thailand’s cool season in, and for a moment it brought me back to my early days in this country. I remember stepping into this place wide-eyed, curious, slightly clueless, but full of expectation. I didn’t know then that I would still be here a decade later, learning, growing, and threading my life into this land of pad kraprao, motorbikes and monsoon moods.

Ten years. It is strange to say it out loud. Stranger still realising it has become home.

When you first move abroad, you think you are searching for adventure. Eventually, you discover you are really searching for roots, a way to plant yourself in new soil and still bloom. Looking back, three things helped me not only stay, but thrive.

Community, because no one thrives alone

You can have stunning beaches, pad kra pao on every corner, cheap massages and coffee strong enough to wake the dead, but without people, life will eventually feel hollow. Community is what turned Thailand from a destination into a home. It is oxygen for the soul.

Here is something I have learned over the years. You cannot enter a new place like a king waiting for a red carpet reception. No confetti. No choir. No spotlight. If you want community, you must participate in building it. You cannot stand in the corner waiting for someone to rescue you from your own silence. You show up, you talk to people, you engage, you ask questions, you build relationships like someone who actually wants them.

We are adults. Friends are no longer assigned like groupwork partners in school. You build them.

I remember meeting someone who kept church hopping, switching friend groups like changing channels, constantly frustrated that he could not find community. He arrived, stood on the sidelines, waited for others to greet him, then slipped out and concluded every time, "Not welcoming." But the truth is, as much as churches should do better in spotting newcomers, you have a responsibility too. Community is a shared effort. You cannot grow roots if you keep uprooting yourself. If you stay long enough, lean in enough, love enough, you will find people. Sometimes slowly. Sometimes unexpectedly. But always through participation.

And when you finally build that circle, when you laugh, serve, worship, and share life together, it becomes one of the most beautiful parts of living far from home.

Work that carries meaning

Work keeps your feet on the ground when everything around you is new. Over the last decade, I worked across creative spaces. Filming, photography, branding, design, teaching, writing, storytelling. I grew, failed, restarted and learned. And now with Mosaic Studios growing from a dream into something real, I understand work not just as a means to survive but as a calling. Something entrusted, not just something done.

Purpose gives meaning to routines. Vision gives you reason to stay planted. Work became a place of ministry, creativity, service and growth. More than a job, it became something I could pour myself into and something that continues to shape me too.

A life outside work, because burnout is not a trophy

You cannot thrive if all you do is produce. You need joy. You need rest. You need wonder.

For me, life beyond work looks like early morning bird calls in Thai national parks, camera in hand, waiting for that one perfect frame. It looks like islands, ocean wind, christian worship gatherings that stretch longer than intended, late reflections on rooftops, stars above Bangkok pressed like small silver prayers. Photography, music, writing, travel, coffee, friends, faith. These things remind me I am not alive just to meet deadlines. I am alive to breathe, to marvel, to enjoy.

These spaces reset the soul. They turn life into more than a schedule. Say’s the ADHD.

Ten years later

I have learned you can build a home anywhere if you carry these three things.

Community that holds you.
Work that grows you.
Life outside work that restores you.

Somewhere between the chaos of Bangkok traffic, the warmth of Thai people, the calling God placed inside me, and the peace found in quiet places and wide horizons, Thailand became home. Not just where I moved, but where I lived. And somehow, through friendships, faith, creativity and growth, this place began to live in me too.