“Third Culture Kids” is a term used to describe kids who have spent their development years outside their parents’ culture…often they have lived in several countries as they have grown up, and never quite feel part of any one culture. When asked “Where are you from?”, they often hesitate while they contemplate the answer.
Liverpool Street Station, London. Photo by me
Home is where the heart is—and these children often grow up traveling and living in many different places. So their “roots” tend to be people, not places.
The train station in Bath, England. photo by me
I can understand this. I spent my formative years on Long Island and most of my “career” years as a graphic designer going between Washington DC and New York City in the United States. But as I matured, I traveled further and further away from my home shores.
The Chrysler Building, NYC. Is this home? Photo by me.
By the time I met My Beloved Brit, I felt comfortable with experiencing cultures in many foreign countries, so when we decided to move lock stock and barrel to the Caribbean (although still technically American–St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands) for 8 years, it was not nearly as scary as it might sound.
Home in the Caribbean, on the distant shores of St. John.
Now, although comfortable back in the US, we do experience wanderlust and never know where we might land in the future.
The Lake District, Grasmere, England. Photo by me.
Thank goodness for Facebook, Twitter and Skype. We have friends and family as far away as Australia, Portugal and The Philippines, and I can’t imagine what our phone bill would be without these forms of cheap global communication.
Pont Alexandre Bridge, Paris. Photo by me
The world is our home, and like the T.C.K. kids, our home is where our friends and families are, wherever that might be.
