“Alright guys, we’re going to go around the room and say our names, and one interesting fact about ourselves!” The teacher will say on the first day of any class. Don’t start to think this goes away in college--it started in kindergarten and I’m sure they’ll make us do the same, lame icebreaker until I’m in a nursing home reciting the same sentence.
“I’m Brenna, and an interesting fact about me is that I lived in Africa.”
Mind your "Mean Girls" references, ladies and gentleman, they’re wasted on me. These 14 words usually precede a chorus of, “YOU LIVED IN AFRICA????”
Yes, I lived in Africa. No I don’t remember much, no I didn’t live in a hut, and yes my parents are in the Foreign Service.
Whether it be any branch of the military or in my case, The State Department, children whose parents are in the Foreign Service sometimes get a bad rap. I asked some of my friends what they thought some stigmas are about Foreign Service children.
“Superiority complex” “Military Brat” and “Rich and spoiled” were just some of the phrases used to describe…well kids like my brother and I. But this was not the first time I had heard these terms used to describe us. Living in Italy and attending Marymount, and international catholic school, there were always these snide phrases being thrown around by not only the students, but often the parents and seldom the teachers. Personally, I’ve met a true “Military Brat” or two, but this stigma, as any stigma is, is hurtful.
“So where are you from?”
This is the second or third question you get asked when you meet new people in college, right behind “what’s your name?” or “what’s your major?” You’re away from home, after all, it’s only reasonable for people to want to know where you’re from. But for someone who has parents in the Foreign Service? This question is absolutely frustrating. As a Foreign Service lovechild, I start to ask myself, well, where am I from? Is it where I was born? Where I lived the longest? Where I just moved here from?
“I moved around a lot, but I came here from Connecticut.” People are usually satisfied with this when I answer, but it never feels quite right. How am I supposed to encompass all my amazing experiences with such a blanket response? I’ve lived in places such as California, Zambia, Virginia, Rome, Connecticut, and now I attend college in New York. Now don’t get me wrong I’m proud of where I’ve lived and to have had the amazing opportunity to live there, but reciting the whole list of places every time I meet a new person? I don’t think so.
All in all, I love that I’ve lived all over the world. It’s given me vast experiences and cultural understandings that are totally priceless. I love my long list of homes and the fact that I’ll never have just one. I love disproving stigmas about Foreign Service families, and most of all, I love that my list is only going to grow.
