A Third-Culture Kid is someone who has spent most of their life in a country which they aren’t ethnically connected to. Life in the country is usually temporary for various reasons. There are usually people of different cultural backgrounds also residing in the same country, which leads the Third-Culture Kid to adopt all the cultures he/she is surrounded by. The only person who can understand the life of a Third-Culture Kid is a Third-Culture Kid.
1. We often make the mistake of comparing things to “back home” and then get the dreaded question, “Where are you from?”
2. When somebody asks us the dreaded question, we have to take a deep breath and begin the journey that is our life story. Which then leads us to explain that we aren’t really from anywhere.
3. We are constantly shuttling back and forth between continents, so we become addicted to being jet-lagged.
4. Some airports feel like our second homes. We know exactly where the great food and shopping spots are.
But mostly we wish we were this little girl.
5. We have spent so much of our school life surrounded by people from different cultural backgrounds that we have absorbed aspects of all these different cultures ourselves.
6. When we try food from a restaurant that claims it has the best *insert country here* food, we automatically become food critics.
It’s never as good as the food back home.
7. We have friends scattered across different continents, living in completely different time-zones.
8. Therefore, we find ourselves waking up at 4 AM to call a friend on her birthday.
9. Our computer has a widget that includes the time-zones of all the places our friends are currently living.
Which makes us hate the whole concept of time.
10. People are confused when we tell them we speak a certain language fluently.
We spend a lot of time trying to explain it to them.
11. We would much rather spend our time at home with WiFi so we can Skype your friends whenever necessary.
Lost WiFi is reason to panic.
12. We have done some foreign external exam at some point in our lives that has led us to almost have a nervous breakdown.
13. We feel lucky to have so many friends around the world because it’s an excuse to travel to new places to visit them.
14. But then we also feel unlucky because we would much rather have them live right next to us.
15. We get excited when we meet someone who used to live in the same place we did.
It’s like finding that one curly fry among all the regular fries.
16. Our accents fall into a specific category that isn’t recognized by many people.
17. We know so much about countries most people have never visited because we have friends who are either from those countries or who are currently living there.
18. We find ourselves still interested in watching the lame soap operas with subtitles that used to air when we were younger.
19. We can say curse words in many different languages, which comes in handy when we need to not be understood.
20. We can also say “I love you” in many different languages, which makes us seem worldly and mysterious.
We love you too Seth.
21. We have mastered the art of packing our suitcase two hours before we have to leave.
22. Our group text buzzes at odd hours of the night because of the different times our friends are awake.
23. When we are frustrated we tend to rant in another language, which leads people to think we need an exorcism.
This pretty much sums up the reaction of most people
