What happens when your big adventure finally arrives… fourteen years late and just weeks before the world shuts down?

Anton and Ben sit down with Kevin and Romaine Mackenzie, a Johannesburg-born couple whose migration story is as much about partnership as it is about place. After waiting 14 years for a US visa to come through, they packed up their lives and arrived in Chicago in January 2020, driving into the city on a cold, dark, rainy night, only weeks before COVID changed everything.

This is a story of starting again together. Of leaving behind family, familiarity, and identity and discovering how much migration reshapes not just where you live, but who you become. Kevin reflects on rebuilding from scratch as an entrepreneur with no network, no shortcuts, and a restless need to stay bold. Romaine shares the emotional cost of leaving a life she deeply believed in, and what it means to re-anchor yourself when safety, trust, and certainty fall away.

At the heart of this episode is family. Watching their son Max navigate a new country, a new school, puberty, and lockdown until a chance baseball try-out at Oz Park changed everything. Sport became community. Community became belonging. And slowly, Chicago started to feel like home.

This episode is about mindset over nostalgia. About not trying to replicate your old life but re-engineering it. About resisting self-sabotage, choosing boldness, and learning to live forward without comparison.

If migration doesn’t just change your address, but your identity, who do you become on the other side?

🎧 Listen to Episode 21 of A Stranger, A Suitcase, and A Story at https://3spod.com
Also on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.

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