In our Global Connections meeting on Monday we talked about what our group originally stood for and that was to support TCK's (Third Culture Kids.) Third Culture Kids are individuals who have grown up overseas or in a different place from their parents. These individuals have 2 (or more) cultures in their lives, the culture(s) that their parents are from and the culture that they grow up in. These 2 cultures then merge to from a third culture, the culture of the individual (e.g. TCK.)
I myself am a TCK, but living here in Colorado have never thought that I really identified with that identity as I don't talk very much about living in Japan and I have family here so I mainly identify with the English and American sides of me. I think when I lived in England I was more of a TCK as I was identifying more with Japan after just moving from there.
However, recently I have been thinking about what I identify with nowadays and I realize that I am more of a TCK than I previously thought. One thing that I noticed recently is that although I identify with my English side, people often know more about England than I do. This often makes me quite upset as it makes me sad that I do not know much about the history, politics, etc of my country of birth. I know this cannot be helped, because I have been to many different schools all over the world and have never really learned it at school. However it still makes me sad, when people ask me questions that I don't know and that I have never taken the time or had the interest to pursue. I guess it makes me sad because it makes me feel as though my English side of me has gotten just a little bit smaller, by not know things.
I often feel this with other identities that I have like the Japanese and American sides of me. When people in England used to ask me things about America or when people ask me whether I can speak Japanese and I say that I no longer can, I feel myself shrink a little bit inside.
I think I feel this way because whenever I am in a different country I fit in by not fitting in, e.g. I fall back on my other identities. And if I don't have these identities to fall back on, then who am I?
I guess I am a mix of all of these cultures, that is my third culture. It is just that when you know or are a little bit of everything, sometimes you can feel like you are nothing.
i know how you feel. but you can look at it a different way and think of how all these cultures that you identify with benefit you and those around you. i for one, love being around third culture kids because their viewpoints, your opinions courtney are unique and make me think about the world in a different way :)
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