Growing up has a kid, I was never able to Identify where I called home. Many times people have asked me, where are you from? I then wonder if are they asking where I was raised? My birthplace? Or where I now reside. This is the outcome of one who has moved to different locations and lived the same amount of years at one place to eventually call it home. I call this, the life of a Third Culture Kid. For those of you who do not know what a Third-Culture Kid (TCK) is, you are in for a treat. A TCK is someone who grew up in a culture that they were accustomed to and ended up moving to another country or place to learn a whole different culture. TCK kids often find themselves struggling to fit into a new culture different from their own. There is a sense of feeling left out because we do not understand why things are done a certain way or why people think a certain a way. Sometimes being a TCK has it’s pros and its cons.
- We sometimes find ourselves with other TCKs or those that look like us
- We usually feel like we are outcasts at our place of origin because of being away for so long
- It is hard to sometimes call a place home when you have lived the same amount of years at both places
- Missing your extended family back home is a pretty tough one
- We have long distance friendships
- We get to eat food from our own culture and also from the new culture
- We see things from a different perspective when it comes to social issues
- We tend to build relationships with everyone around us
- We get to live two different cultures at the same time. As a TCK, we tend to mix our native culture and new culture together, best example is in clothing.
- Our accent changes depending on who we’re talking to
- Our taste in music is very diverse culturally wise
And all this is just a glimpse of being a Third Culture Kid!
