friendship — Stories

Many people didn’t know what Pakistan was. Right after 9/11, they did…

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

The Bittersweetness of an International Friendship

One of the neighbours we connected with was a family from the Netherlands. Their lives mirrored our own as they too had recently relocated with a toddler in tow, exactly the same age as ours...

Love For The Moment

I will always be on the move. I will always choose this path no matter how lonely it may get sometimes...

Pop and Circumstance

Each person is more interesting than any one aspect of their identity too, and everyone owes it to themselves to experiment and discover themselves, instead of just assuming the identity placed upon them by their societies…

Where Are You From?By Daniel Nguyen-Phuoc (From the United States of America, Vietnam, Indonesia, the United Kingdom & Switzerland. Living in Poland)27 February 2021TCK TOWN, third culture adult, third culture kid, Texas, united kingdom, Vietnam, Indonesia, identity, friendship, switzerland, growth, change, journey Comment

Raising The Bar

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

Loving & Hating Nashville

I took everything I could from Nashville and in return, Nashville took everything out of me. I haven’t figured out how to make this city my home and I don’t know how to stay…

My Bengali New Year in Washington

Their beloved poet Rabindranath Tagore was quoted, and the paintings of renowned Bangladeshi painter Zain Ul Abideen were reminisced about. My friend and I, being Pakistani, were egged on to…

The Consistency of Change

Do you ever feel like you have an alter ego for each city you go back to? I know Nashville changed me, I learned lessons here I’ve never learned anywhere else and I hope that those stay with me when I move…

ChangeBy Molly Kaitlin (From Peru, Costa Rica, Minnesota & Florida. Living in Tennessee)22 July 2020friendship, millennials, TCK TOWN, third culture adult, third culture kid, Gen Z, diversity, culture, communication, moving, Nashville, USA, relationships, city, cities, homeComment

Webcams and Red Wine

If sharing our personalities, sharing our music and cultures, and celebrating our differences and diversity are the most beautiful and connective forms of interaction, then what difference does it make that we are not physically together when we do this?…

COVID-19By Cayetano Garcia Cachay (From Germany, Brazil & the United States of America. Living in Germany)20 June 2020friendship, millennials, TCK TOWN, third culture adult, third culture kid, Gen Z, diversity, pandemic, music, culture, technology, communicationComment

How to Meet TCKs in Your New Home

It is so helpful to get out there with an open mind and some level of trust in the people you are going to meet…

GuidesBy Ava Senaratne (From Sri Lanka, Dubai & Melbourne. Living in Sydney)13 June 2020TCK, TCK TOWN, birthday edition, COVID-19, isolation, belonging, confidence, relationships, atck, travel, friendship, friendsComment

Your Goodbye—My Hello

We met, a unit. Things progressed. New challenges, fewer meetings, simple distractions…

Goodbye, RelationshipsBy Paul Kennedy (From The Western Pacific, South East Asia, Europe & Alaska. Living in Tokyo)2 June 2020TCK, TCK TOWN, Third Culture Adult, third culture adult, culture, story, identity, goodbye, goodbyes, friend, friendship, leaving, travelComment

A Love Letter To My Community

I had kept my story to myself because it’s uncomfortable, and people never knew what to say…

CommunityBy Molly Kaitlin (From Peru, Costa Rica, Minnesota & Florida. Living in Tennessee)1 February 2020TCK, TCK TOWN, friendship, friends, community, moving, moving countries, Peru, Peruvian, USA, American, America, story, sharing, healing, TennesseeComment

Aerogrammes

A stamp printed on blue paper in a stingray shape (blame the flaps). Just enough space without lines, to let others know you are still alive…

FriendshipsBy Paul Kennedy (From The Western Pacific, South East Asia, Europe & Alaska. Living in Tokyo)28 September 2019TCK, TCK TOWN, Third Culture Adult, third culture kid, writers, writer, writing, friendship, friends, multiculturalComment

Bridging My Two Worlds

I adapted to the new environment, but life never became easier. As I walked down the street, students from my school would yell, calling me Chinese…

The Hale Boys Reunite In Bali

After a heavy meal we would scour the roads for a terang bulan stall. Terang bulan is a big, round Indonesian pancake, made of sugar and coconut milk and cooked in a pan smeared in palm margarine…

FunBy Danish Khan (From Melbourne, Perth, Karachi & Islamabad. Living in Karachi)3 July 2019TCK, TCK TOWN, third culture kid, Third Culture Adult, Bali, friendship, friends, men, high school, travelComment

When It Could Be Love

The earliest memory of me actively rejecting romantic love was in middle school. When I saw how nosy, gossipy and intrusive all my classmates became if anyone decided to date, I resolved to not be a part of this experience altogether…

Fear, RelationshipsBy Shannon Irby (From Ramstein, Tucson, Okinawa, Adana, D.C., San Antonio & Houston. Living in Okinawa.)29 June 2019TCK, TCK TOWN, Third Culture Adult, third culture kid, intimacy, friendship, love, romance, salsa dancingComment

The Known Unknown

While waiting for information about her funeral, I found out it was already taking place and I would miss it…

When Solo Travel Isn’t So Solitary

Jay and I stayed up till almost 3am that night realizing we had much more in common than we thought, shedding tears and spilling our life secrets…

The First Three Goodbyes

The memories of the last goodbye would come flooding back — the guilt that I hadn’t embraced the moment, the feeling of contentment that I had made friends for life, the experiences I had locked into my memory, and most of all, the sadness that this all was all coming to a grinding halt…

GoodbyeBy Danish Khan (From Melbourne, Perth, Karachi & Islamabad. Living in Karachi)3 April 2019goodbyes, TCK, ATCK, TCK TOWN, third culture kid, cult, family, friendship, friends, moving, Australia, Pakistan, Pakistani, Australian, schoolComment