Being a Third Culture Kid has its detriments, never belonging. A TCK is a person who is such a strong mix of two cultures that they create a third culture for themselves. That is exactly what I am.

My parents met in New York City while working towards their graduate degrees. Six years after, I was born. I lived in New Jersey for the first five years of my life and then moved to Taiwan, not speaking any Mandarin. I was thrown into the local Mandarin-speaking school and struggled to keep up with my peers. In the fifth grade, my parents decided that an American education would be more beneficial for me and placed me into an international school.

Many of the students enrolled in the school were of similar background to me. All of our teachers were foreigners and all the students had to have foreign passports. We had some of the best educational programs possible, AP/IB classes, extracurricular activities, SAT testing, college visits...etc. However, there was one thing that separated us from most American high schools. A different kind of school gate.

This gate, works like a bridge between two different worlds. Every day, after school, students swarm out of the buildings, through the gates, and onto the street. Back on the streets, they are hit with the reality of being a Third Culture Kid.

You never belong. I could never belong. I have been living in Taiwan for the past 12 years of my life, but every time I enter a grocery store, I get weird looks like I don't belong. Although I have the looks of an Asian student, I dress, talk, even walk differently. The best way to explain it, is picturing an American tourist trapped inside a Taiwanese high schooler.

So what happens? What exactly is a Third Culture Kid? Well, in order to feel a sense of identity, many others like me, create a third culture. It's like a fantasy that we have, to fulfill the missing part of us. We select what we identify with the most from the two or more cultures and create our own.

For example, I follow American pop culture, wear an East-West fusion style of clothing, perform in school plays while maintaining an "Asian-acceptable GPA," and my family eats a mixture of Eastern and Western food at dinner. I celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chinese New Year, and Autumn Festival.

Over the years, I have grown to appreciate this third culture. Having to simultaneously live in two different cultures gives an entirely different perspective to your world. You have to learn how to resolve issues that the two cultures contradict and/or conflict. Being international doubles your horizon and allows you to establish connections and make friends all over the world. You can learn about their life experience and how it reflects compared to yours. With time, being a TCK became who I am and became the identity that I have been looking for.

Never belonging sucks. But it doesn't mean you don't have control over your identity. My fellow TCKs, hopefully, you aren't having as big of an identity crisis as I had. If you are, however, find an identity that you can relate to. A place you can call home. This could be a physical location, an activity, or even your friends. It's tough, and you're going to experience a lot of difficulties. Sometimes you're going to feel like you don't belong anywhere on Earth. Don't fret. Tell yourself how lucky you are to be able to have this experience.