Third Culture Kid (TCK)

Why I don’t have a hometown. And why that’s okay.

One of the most, if not the most, difficult question for me to answer also happens to be the most simple conversation starter out there, “So where are you from?”

I always seem to have the same response. I pause and look at my question-asker for a few seconds, trying to gauge whether they are simply looking for a three word answer or they are genuinely curious about my life story and wouldn’t mind me explaining it for the next three minutes.

Here it goes:

I am a third-generation-born Singaporean but moved to Sydney, Australia was I was five years old. Since I spent the majority of my life growing up there, I used to always call Sydney my hometown. I lived there till I was 16 (well technically 15 and 362 days!) and even while there, I moved homes and schools many many times. I actually ended up going to eight different primary and secondary schools in total! I then moved to the Los Angeles area three days before my 16th birthday, and ended up completing the last two years of high school there. I then moved away to college in Northern California and lived there for the next four years – what I consider the most transformative years of my life. After graduation I moved back to LA to work and be closer to family. I worked for a year before beginning graduate school in London, UK (where I currently am)!

Of course, I don’t necessarily recount this entire narrative to every new stranger I meet or I’d have scared half of them away with my ramblings. But I do give them a brief insight into what really defines my life – traveling to new countries and meeting people who broaden my thinking and make me question “normalcy.” As Mark Twain so wisely put it, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and marrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.”

I'm a third culture kid in the sense that I juggle living between and within my parents' culture and the culture(s) of the society/ies that I live in. So why don’t I have a hometown? Because I consider it unfair to all the rich and varied experiences I’ve had to choose only one place to call “my home.” Every place I’ve lived has had its ups and downs, its positives and negatives, its beauty and its darkness. But if there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that you win some and you most definitely learn some.