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Why Third-Culture Kids May Struggle to Say Where They’re From
I’m a human of the world; isn’t that enough?
People who grew up in one home, in one country and attended one school fascinate me.
I’m from everywhere and nowhere. My soul's recipe comprises a little bit of this and a sprinkling of that.
By the time I was seven years old, I had lived in four different countries. By eight or nine, my parents separated, creating two home environments with different domestic cultures.
And so I continued my misfit path, adding to the weird and wonderful mix of my internal culture while always being on the periphery of the group.
I recently read up on “third-culture kids,” which blew me away. As explained in this BBC article “third-culture kids” describes children who spend their early years in countries that are not their parents’ homeland.
Yemen, Jamaica, and Saudi Arabia were not my parents' homelands, and yet there I was, in my formative years, soaking up these countries while I learned how to be human.
At age 12, I went to boarding school, yet another world to adapt to.
Hailing from a remote corner of Scotland with a small community, at school, I was regarded as a hippie, and in my home community, I…