I moved away from my home country 6 years ago. When I returned, I felt like an outsider.

The author moved from Mexico to the US and then to the UK.

Courtesy of Santiago Barraza Lopez Six years ago, I left my home country, Mexico, and moved to New York, then to the UK.

I recently returned to Mexico after a long time away and was surprised by how much it has changed.

I felt like an outsider, and realized I had changed even more.

I grew up in Mexico City and spent most of my life there.

Six years ago, I left the country, first for the US and later for the UK, but I never stopped thinking of my birthplace as the place I ultimately belonged.

This summer, I returned after two years away, the longest stretch I had ever gone without visiting home .

I expected the trip to feel nostalgic and effortless.

Instead, I was surprised by how tiring it felt and, for the first time, how slightly out of place I seemed to be.

Mexico City had changed while I was away The first thing that struck me was how different the city itself felt.

Mexico City had always been huge, chaotic, and international in its own way, but the version I returned to felt noticeably more cosmopolitan than the one I remembered.

There were new restaurants everywhere, more international businesses , more English being spoken around me, and far more foreigners than I remembered seeing before I left.

Areas that once felt deeply familiar now seemed to belong to a newer version of the city.

I did not necessarily dislike any of it.