To my fellow travellers and global nomads

I wanted to dedicate this post to anyone who has grown up or lived extensively in a foreign country other than their country of origin, and is currently searching for ‘home’ wherever it may be. I wanted to keep my update short and sweet, as well as relevant to the current journey that I am fortunate and blessed to have been on these past 10 months, traveling to different parts of the world and visiting cities and countries that I could have only dreamed of.

A couple of weeks ago for my intercultural communications class, I put together a presentation on my third-culture experience having grown up in the United Arab Emirates after relocating from the Philippines at such a young age with my parents, prior to moving to Canada for university. I came across the above video and after watching it, I felt that my entire life was explained in all of 8 minutes. More importantly, for the first time, I feel that I am not alone in my search for home and self-identity–recognizing that there are so many other people around the world just like me that are also going through very similar experiences.

The term “third-culture” or “third-cutlure kid” itself, was first coined by sociologist Ruth Hill Useem in the 1950′s, after she spent a year on two separate occasions in India conducting research on North American children living in India. Initially, the term “third culture” was used to refer to the process of learning how to relate to another culture. In time however, Useem and her research team started to refer to children who accompany their parents into a different culture as third-culture kids or TCKs. Useem used this particular term because TCKs integrate aspects of their birth culture (the first culture) and the new culture (the second culture), creating a unique “third culture.” One of the most important observations from this research illuminated the fact that TCKs cope rather than adjust, becoming “a part of” and “apart from” whatever situation and culture they happen to be in.

Given all of this, it seems in a roundabout way that I am one step closer to understanding who I am as a person, and where it seems I belong in this world, both in the figurative as well as the geographical sense. On a personal note, it also helps to explain, in part, why I felt the need almost a year ago to leave everything I knew behind in Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto and push myself out of my comfort zone, in order to explore and see what the world has to offer. Perhaps one day, I’ll even write a book (a nod to you, Ruby).

For the time being, building on Ruby’s latest update, I certainly feel that I am currently at the perfect place with the perfect people doing the perfect things at this point in my life, and I am looking forward to even more adventures and sharing them with all of you in the years to come.