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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?

Ali Hall
A-Culturated
5 min readNov 21, 2024

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Silhoutte of a person in the sunset
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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…

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A-Culturated
A-Culturated

Published in A-Culturated

For all the readers and writers in between cultures

Ali Hall
Ali Hall

Written by Ali Hall

✍Well-being, feminism, personal growth & life observations. Childfree & owner of Life Without Children & Abnormally Normal. Lover of trail running & dogs.

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