Essays and stories shaped by lived experience

What do you do when you hit mid thirties and realize you are stuck in a meaningless job or career? Wait it out? Change jobs or careers? In Ralph’s case, the career change took him not only to a new employer but a new country on a new continent. It can be an unsettling business stepping out of one’s comfort zone. Ralph didn’t know the journey would involve three continents, seven countries and over thirty years. The constant changes grew from the constant desire for new experiences. 

This site presents his experiences of how place shapes perspective. Ralph Kraft’s writing moves between memoir, essay, and story, reflecting on what it means to hold on to home country expectations or adapt and live by the expectations of each new country enjoying how culture, politics, and memory are carried from one place to another. What stands out for Ralph is how fascinating, not scary, the cultural differences he encountered were. His big lesson and warning to othersI updated the text on the home page, and I added the image that you sent to the book page because it wouldn’t work on the home page unless we wanted to take off the title and all the scripting that is there.who pursue the ex-pat lifestyle: Expect the Unexpected. Alongside shorter works, the site also sets the stage for forthcoming novels, as well as reflections drawn from the long road that led to it.