Developmental Change

For so long, I’ve viewed being a TCK – someone with no roots – as a negative, when in fact there are a lot of positive attributes associated with my ability to be flexible, malleable, pliable.
Society has a tendency to look at something and/or someone and label them with one name. The “naughty boy,” the “happy couple, the” alcoholic,” the ”emotional girl,” etc. When we do that, it connotes stagnation; it doesn’t imply the ability to ever learn from our past mistakes or change.

Being a TCK has allotted me the opportunity to interact with people from a multitude of different cultures. I’m talking cultures from different countries, but also cultural differences within one country. Culture can even be described as the differences between men and women.

I would like to pride myself on being someone who is at a stage in development and someone who is always willing and able to mold, shift, change, become, and thrive with whatever the world throws at me. I’ve been so focused on not fitting in and meshing with the American culture that I’ve been blinded to the positivity growing up overseas has given me.

From now on, I will try to see people for who they are: living, changing, ever-growing human beings. We all have the chance and opportunity to learn from our past and become who we want to be and for that, I’m truly grateful to be a TCK; to allow myself to developmentally change and blossom.