family — Stories

I didn’t want to accept the change, I didn’t want to let go of family stability, I didn’t know how to build a home somewhere all on my own…

EducationBy Naomi Ettrick (From Azerbaijan & England. Living in Ukraine)8 May 2021university, TCK TOWN, third culture adult, third culture kid, change, student, growing up, adulthood, transience, temporary, identity, family, friends, unfinished, wanderer Comment

The Roots We Carry

Though I may have felt alone at times, I never really was…

Friendships, Moving, Where Are You From?, ChangeBy Anita Krishnan (From Singapore, Australia & the United States. Currently quarantined in India, due to COVID-19)20 March 2021TCK, TCA, TCK TOWN, moving, university, friendship, friends, relationship, relationships, family, traditional, past, LDRComment

Worship in Sri Lanka

“Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu” is how we usually end Buddhist chants, or ‘gatha’s,’ many of which are recited in set groups of verses…

The Pink Lion from Tanzania

I wanted to claim Tanzania as my home, but how could I? I was not accepted by others as a part of their country…

Raising The Bar

The scene of a Muslim family decorating a built-in home bar at Christmas felt normal to me at the time…

The Ghosts of Hot Chocolate

Our neighbors and my family sat huddled at a table, Bathed in the smoky vapors and light from a kerosene lantern, With the smell of temples, Like mosquito coils from Japan…

Letting Go of Family (Dis)honour

How lonely my life could’ve been had I stuck to my culture which tells me to value the thick ties of family above all else...

We're Inspired, Advantages, Family, FriendshipsBy Farah Beaini (Living in the land of the Kulin nation)14 November 2020tck, third culture kid, TCK, TCK TOWN, family, cultures, culture, cultural, Lebanon, Lebanese, mother, parents, views, violent, relatives, sister, sisters, aunt, Australia, Australian, British, Canberra, Scottish, brother, Greek Comment

Not Of Blood

We have come together not because of blood, but because we share bonds of a common outlook on life…

Social Hide & Seek

Our version of a corsage was a motia flower and though street vendors would sell these readily, they were not durable enough to hang around the hands of people as they danced…

Adulthood Across Three Continents

In places like East Pakistan (before it became Bangladesh), Kuwait, and Sierra Leone there just weren’t that many expat families…

Between Planes

We were crossing time zones long before I learned to cross my T’s…

Where Are You From?By Anita Krishnan (From Singapore, Australia & the United States. Currently quarantined in India, due to COVID-19)11 July 2020where are you from, TCK, TCK TOWN, third, third culture kid, family, identity, cultu, culture, moving, timeComment

Tin Can Martial Law

When we were politely locked into our hotel in Delhi nine months later due to the street uprisings, the desk manager profusely apologized to us…

A House of Lives

The world outside, though foreign, is also mine…

Dreams of Livvy's Paris

I hugged her goodbye and left for the train station. It’s been a year since and that was the last hug I would get from her…

Goodbye, RelationshipsBy Molly Kaitlin (From Peru, Costa Rica, Minnesota & Florida. Living in Tennessee)2 May 2020TCK, TCK TOWN, Third Culture Adult, third culture kid, languages, language, Paris, goodbye, family, cousins, cousin, memory, death, grief Comments

Drive-by Veggies

A curfew has been enforced here. You can’t leave the house at all. We’ve been rationing the food we have…

COVID-19By Ava Senaratne (From Sri Lanka, Dubai & Melbourne. Living in Sydney)18 April 2020TCK, TCK TOWN, Third Culture Adult, third culture adult, culture, story, identity, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan, COVID-19, Corona, family Comment

Vegemite Homesickness

When I think of Vegemite, I think of Japan—Tokyo specifically. When I first started working in Japan, about half of my co-workers were from Australia…

FoodBy Paul Kennedy (From The Western Pacific, South East Asia, Europe & Alaska. Living in Tokyo)1 April 2020TCK, TCK TOWN, Third Culture Adult, third culture kid, food, vegemite, Australia, Australian, Japa, Tokyo, Alaska, Amazon, family, visit, vacationComment

Hope and Healing in Flores de Villa

As a child who grew up in a suburban bubble in Minnesota, coming to Flores de Villa was shocking. I was unaware of the poverty that existed, and to see it first-hand changed me forever...

Her Wedding Purse

Even though my grandmother has been diagnosed with dementia, she still proudly kits up with her 'wedding purse' on her way to the bank, or to the grocery store…

To a Land of Simpler Life and Spanish

My earliest memories are of traveling back and forth on ‘Mr. Continental’ and ‘Mr. American’ from Honduras to Illinois, to see Grandma and Grandpa at Christmas time and feed the cows…

Japanese American on the Flip Side

My blue eyes and straight nose a legacy of Northern Europe and gifts from my ancestors…

FamilyBy Paul Kennedy (From The Western Pacific, South East Asia, Europe & Alaska. Living in Tokyo)7 December 2019TCK, TCK TOWN, identity, family, parents, sterotypes, Japanese, American, America, language, Tokyo, poemComment