Now that we are well into the school year, the dreaded introductory questions have (mostly) ceased. The annoying questions like “Where are you from?”, “What’s your major?” or “What dorm are you in?” have subsided. These questions plague every freshman activity, every bonding night and interaction with new people during the first month of school. While the answers to these questions may seem straightforward for many, there is a specific group of people who dread these questions more than anyone else: third-culture kids.
Essentially, third-culture kids are those who grew up or are growing up in a place that’s different from both of their parents’ cultures and are experiencing a mixture of new experiences, cultures and languages. As a third-culture kid myself, I grew up in Japan, Portugal and the United States, and I’m also a mixture of Caribbean and Hispanic cultures. Thus, the question “Where are you from?” is extremely difficult for me to answer.
Do I tell people where I was born? That’s Spain. Where I lived for most of my life? I grew up in three different countries. Do people want the short answer or the long answer about my life story? Growing up, I struggled a lot with feeling like I don’t belong or can’t relate to having a place I’m “from” since I lived all over the world. Coming to college and having to answer the question “Where are you from?” always resulted in a momentary pause and hesitation, followed by a slight sense of alienation from those who grew up in the same place.
However, over the years I’ve come to view my inner ‘tug-of-war’ of cultures and places as a blessing rather than a hindrance. Being from so many places means that I have an open mindset. I’ve had the opportunity to travel and try different foods and hear different languages, and I have friends who live all around the world. I’ve learned that it’s okay to not identify just one place as ‘home,’ as it’s such an amazing opportunity to be able to call yourself a ‘citizen of the world.’ So to all those who feel like they struggle with answering the question “Where are you from?”: Please know that you are not alone.
