Third Culture Chronicles

Dedicated to those who, like me, cannot answer the question, "Where are you from?" in less than 4 minutes.

[steinbit]

I know we’re all pretty down rn so here, have some cute pics of svalbard reindeer

it’s the smallest subspecies of reindeer on the planet and it loves you

the svalbard reindeer is also the northernmost herbivore in the world, and during winter they survive an average of −16°C (3°F) weather

look at those small fluffy ears and kind eyes, the reindeer is cheering you all on to stay strong in these trying times 

just like the arctic winter, this too shall pass

the svaldbard reindeer proves that even under the most extreme of circumstances, life finds a way. so please, please keep on fighting

[senatorgana]

every Ross i’ve ever met thinks he’s a Chandler

[comupter-blog]

U know when ur hairs greasy and it makes u feel so so so bad about urself. And ur entire life. Everything is awful bc my hair is greasy

[tcchronicles]

Same...I just washed my hair and I feel 100 x better about myself.

[tckblog-blog]

Melissa is another TCK whom I interviewed. She is a 3x Passport Holder: Peruvian, Italian and American.She has lived in Florida, North Carolina, Mexico, Peru, Oregon, Texas, Florida, and is currently based in London.

“When you live in so many places, home stops being a place but a feeling. Rather than saying, ‘I’m home,’ it’s more of a, ‘I feel home.’ A comforting sense that you actually belong and everything is okay in the world because in that moment, you feel satisfied and not so anxious. In comparison, chameleons change color in order to adapt to their enviroment but more frequently when they are faced with the adrenaline that comes with ‘fight or flight’ as they are being pursued by a predator. In my case, that adrenaline feeling is known as anxiety, and my identity doesn’t change but it adapts.” – Melissa Woodman

[chekovsphaser]

“You can’t understand what it’s like to miss your country because you never had one”

No, I don’t miss my country like you miss yours, where you long for the familiar ways that people look, think, act, the tastes and sounds and colours that bring back sentiments of the past. The sense that you are exactly where you belong. No, I don’t miss home like you miss it.

I miss home like a man in the desert misses water. Belonging is a human need, like water, like oxygen, like love. And I can see the mirages of home, watch others drink at the pools, but unable to touch them myself. I miss home like a starving man watching others feast. It’s a visceral hole in my soul that I can fill temporarily but the pain always comes back.

I never had a country I considered mine.

There is no place to go back to, because the places I have been exist in pockets of time and lenses of childhood viewpoints. I never got to watch a place grow, and grow with it. If I try to go back somewhere all the sights the sounds the tastes the smells have changed and it is no longer the place that exists in my memory.

Where you can go back thirty years later and all the sights are different, but everyone there remembers it the way you remember it. They sound like you do. They think like you do. And I will never have that.

I don’t miss home like you miss home when you’re away, where you miss it but you know that you can go back. I miss home like a man out of Pompeii, dislocated.

I miss home like a dying man misses sleep.

[tcchronicles]

“the places I have been exist in pockets of time” 

[ghostwriter98-blog]

As a TCK, going to college in your “home” country means having to pretend like you fit in somewhere where you actually feel completely lost. Pretending to be someone you’re not. And then you wonder where you really fit in. And you cant think of anywhere. And when the realization that nowhere you go in the entire world will ever really feel like home kicks in….well there’s no coming out from it.

[tcchronicles]

Yes. And not just going to college. Working and pretty much anything in your “home” country feels like pretend. 

Will we one day realise that the meaning of home is different for those of us who have a TCK upbringing?

[tckblog-blog]

Marianna is a TCK living in London for the past 5 years now, she previously lived in the Italy and the U.S. She holds a French and American passport.

“Feeling uncomfortable about the idea of home is something that comes up all the time or asking where you’re from and I don’t know where to say and people say why don’t you just say London, but I mean it’s not really because there’s so many things that are not part of me – like English culture. so people often don’t understand that”

[glassbonespaperskin]

[singitforfrankiero]

The best picture in the world is the picture of Patrick stump with the crowd that’s holding up “we’ve been missing you to death” signs. Like, Patrick thought that no one would care about fob anymore and then on the first concert when fob came off hiatus, half of the crowd has signs that show how much they missed them. That’s my favorite picture.

[singitforfrankiero]

[desdemonadaae]

Don't👏Watch👏Phantom👏Of👏The👏Opera👏If👏You👏Aren't👏Ugly👏And👏Live👏In👏The👏Basement

[gingahhh]

when are male celebs gonna stop wearing boring ass plain black and white tuxedos and suits to award shows like step it up they all look the same I don’t care who made it. I wanna see some hunger games Capitol style fashion

[zombb-8-deactivated20190924]

They need to take a page from John Boyega’s book. That purple suit. Hot damn.

[babblingbug]

Not forgetting the all red, and the one with the blue blazer…….

[metallikato]

In case people missed the red suit and his blue look: 

And then the gorgeous purple Decepticon one: 

[star-spangled-jackass]

damn son

[louislumbarcurve]

I see your John Boyega and would also like to add Michael B. Jordan 

also, it’s not red carpet but I refuse to ignore these beauties:

[scrimbrim]

I need these suits

[plantinghuman]

Micheal Shillingburg (via GIPHY)

[theharrydaily]

Philadelphia - 05/10

[alisonzai]

[writing-please-wait]

By the time I remembered which language English was, the dude was long gone…

[songofthe4winds]

The feeling...

There is nothing I love more then the feeling of w fresh new start… The excitement and not being able to sleep because of day dreaming about this place. And no matter. What you picture it to be 200% of the time it will not be that way… The sound of a new adventure is such a sweet melody… I can’t wait to take off I can’t wait to land among strangers I can’t wait to see a new side of the world and embracing this new culture… Adding it to my personal collections of cultures I can’t wait for a new circle of friends And new challenges And see myself learn something new And grow into a better me I just love the feeling of a fresh new start…

[logarto]

finding someone who has a similar sort of background to me is so !!!! same history!!!