* Heraclitus applies. You've changed, both by maturing that you'd do anywhere, as well as by being in a different culture. Your home country has changed. In both cases, that's in some ways for the better, in some ways for the worse, but in all cases different than what you expect. Remember to keep an open mind as to why things don't work the way that you're used to, five years is enough for you to change your expectations. You almost have to treat going home as going to a new foreign country.
* Have you a berth lined up already ? Job hunting trans-Atlantic is hard, but so is job hunting while you're unemployed. Not sure which European country is involved, but some it's harder than others to get a mid-level position from outside. Remember your connections from undergrad, etc. have largely forgotten you and will meet you for a coffee to catch up but will not be as supportive of you as if they had worked with you side-by-side over the past years. To the extent that you can get hired by either clients or employers with whom you deal with in the USA, you'll have a much better time than if you try going in cold. If you can't arrange that, invest the next trip home into laying groundwork for your future more serious search by networking, conferences, maybe a continuing ed event to the extent relevant. Remember in Europe the job market has many more frictions than in the USA. Also general business culture and practices are different - I take from your description you've never formally worked in Europe other than maybe at the internship level.
* Your reentry will go better if you take serious thought about why you are doing it. Think of reasons pulling you home rather than pushing you out of here - if you blame being in the USA for why you are unhappy, you'll find the same emotional baggage follows you along with your shipping container.
True, but moving from a country with fewer to more daylight hours has definitely made me feel happier.
Now if you meant sunshine instead of daylight I might agree with you.
:-p
I saw something once on wikipedia showing more sunlight (sunshine?) hours in one place than another. So I am guessing they are measuring it based on the sunlight strength being over a certain threshold. It may have taken cloud into consideration.
I think the more important point in terms of mood is winters nearer the poles have daylight hours such that you go to work and come home in the dark, and spend all day indoors, so you don't see much sunlight. Then at the weekend you catch up but again it might just be 8 hours of sunlight and 6 hours of reasonably strong sunlight.
OTOH the long nights in the summer nearer the poles don't do much for me over a reasonable 7-8pm sunset time. If anything it makes it harder to sleep.
I agree on the going in cold part. It’s probably a good idea to spend a longer vacation with work remote (which I can do) before doing the final move. That might enable me to re-engage with a lot of my friends and professional contacts.
Where are you moving back from and what were your motivations to move back?