What Third Culture Kids Are Saying Issue 02
Alright Issue two is out and this time I have three really diverse individuals and their travels have covered five different continents. A common theme that you'll see here is that Third Culture Kids have skills primed for leadership. Read on to find out why Nasri, Hannah, and Sarah think so.
Nasri Atallah
What is the best thing about being a TCK?
First of all, you have to realize you are a TCK. Most people in that situation don’t know it has a name. They just feel lost their whole life, and when they realize there’s this group of people who have the same experiences as them, they feel a sense of belonging, and that lifts a huge weight. If I had to pick one thing that’s great about being a TCK it’s the ability to get along and empathize absolutely anyone in an instant. It doesn’t mean you’ll become best friends, but you’re predisposed to being accepting of people.
What is the worst thing about being a TCK?
The best thing is also the worst thing: you don’t belong anywhere. While this is easy, and even immensely fun, when you’re young and mobile, when you get a bit older and want to settle down it makes things complicated. Committing to a geographic space is my biggest fear.
What kind of impact do you see TCKs making in the future?
I think the world is increasingly set up in a way that’s beneficial to people with a TCK mindset. Identity is getting less rigid, people and ideas flow pretty easily too. I think we’ll see more and more TCKs making the world a better place, and showing up in positions of leadership. It’s really a beautiful community that intersects with so many other amazing communities.
Hannah Joyce
Hannah Joyce is a missionary kid who I actually went to school with when I used to live in Burkina Faso. She is currently a grad school student who is studying theatre with an emphasis in directing and writing.
What is the best thing about being a TCK?
I think the best thing about being an TCK is the experiences that we gain. Most people that I went to junior high with still haven't really been outside their bordering States. I think these experiences help us adapt to change better than most people, thus allowing us to better interact with people of different culture.
What is the worst thing about being a TCK?
I think the worst thing is not having one place to truly call home. If I say I'm from Springfield, I have a lot of people ask me, "Where did you go to high school?" I then have to explain that I wasn't actually in the States for my high school and so on. And then I'm not Burkinabe and I only lived there for about 4 years. So I think that would be the worst.
What kind of impact do you see TCKs making in the future?
I think that TCKs bring a different perspective on things. I see TCKs brining different cultures together more than they do now.
Sarah Khan
Sarah Khan is a freelance writer based in Cape Town, South Africa. She was born in Canada, then moved around to several countries including Toronto, Saudi Arabia, India, Syracuse, Boston, and New York. She has made visits to 30 countries along the way. After travelling to South Africa on a whim, she fell in love with Cape Town as well as a Capetonian. One year later, she left New York for the Southern Hemisphere. She regularly blogs about her African adventures here. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram to see some of the other cool things she does.
What is the best thing about being a TCK?
Having a unique perspective on life, and making friends in far-flung places — after you've grown up as a TCK, you can pretty much be sure you'll run into someone you know at every airport around the world. Oh, and you can be sure you'll have someone you can reach out to anywhere in the world too - I was two days away from a trip to Jordan with no idea where I was going to stay or what I was going to do, then I remembered a childhood friend from the Saudi days who was working there, and boom, the next thing I knew she was hosting us and helping us plan our whole itinerary!
What is the worst thing about being a TCK?
Hm... the flip side to making friends in far-flung places is HAVING friends in far-flung places - I haven't seen many people I have fond childhood memories of in decades and I'm not sure when our paths might cross again. Facebook definitely makes staying connected easier than ever before, but it still would be nice to have a group of childhood friends I still see in one place from time to time.
What kind of impact do you see TCKs making in the future?
I think TCKs bring a really broad, open-minded perspective to other cultures and other people, and really make the world a much smaller place. Such worldly mindsets make TCKs natural leaders and visionaries who can bring people of various stripes together.