6.

THE ACCEPTANCE STAGE

The last stage . . . aims at the goal of a bicultural or multicultural identity [where] the individual has moved from alienation to a new identity. . . . The emotions of the previous four stages will be integrated and synthesized into this new identity with each stage contributing its own essential perspective to the development [and] an unfolding of the new self. . . . This fifth stage then is not the end point or culmination of development but a state of dynamic tension between self and culture that opens new perspectives.

• Paul Pedersen, The Five Stages of Culture Shock

But that’s okay, that’s good. Because then I can send you.

• Toru