Introduction

Hello.

My name is Ashton and I’m a junior at the OHS, even though I’m only taking one course here this year.

I’m supposed to put a bit of a bio here, and write about myself and my hobbies, but I think the most pertinent piece of information is this: I have moved nine times, living in Germany and every time zone of the United States. That number nine – inconsequential in other contexts – here makes me a TCK, or a Third Culture Kid.

Wikipedia (the most reliable source on the internet, obviously) defines TCKs as “children raised in a culture other than their parents’; (or the culture of the country given on the child’s passport, where they are legally considered native) for a significant part of their early development years.” That covers the basics of the lifestyle. For whatever reason – whether our parents are in an embassy or the military or international business – we are the product of multiple cultures. We’ve moved too often to develop a cultural identity. I don’t even remember the city I was born in, and many other TCKs hold similar stories.

As with everything else in the world, there are benefits and detriments to living as a TCK. We often leave people behind, but there are always new people to meet. We change schools frequently but receive an ongoing and immersive education on culture and society. We are always a little different, because we can’t point to a spot on any map and say “There. That’s where I grew up.” Our foundations have been built on ever-expanding breadth at the expense of depth. I’ve met people, at schools in West Texas and rural New Mexico, who have never left their state. Never left their state! It boggles my mind, but (as of 2008), 57% of Americans have never lived outside their home state. This is the chart from the Pew Research Center, describing how many places Americans have lived.

I’ll be going to college in less than a year, which is a pretty big deal for me. Wherever I end up going, around 57% of my peers will have spent their entire life living in a way that is drastically different from the way that I’ve lived. I imagine that after living around TCKs for so long, it will be a bit of a culture shock, but hey – at least I’m used to that. When you’re a TCK, you learn that one of the most reliable forces in the world is change. Everything is subject to change at a moment’s notice. “Our only constant is inconsistency,” is an oft-repeated phrase largely meant to provide comfort, a goal that it usually fails in achieving. Regardless, I think that mindset – that everything is always subject to change – wires TCKs a little differently than other people. As a high schooler, I have no idea whether that divergent wiring will help or hinder me as I finish high school and am sent off to college, but I do know that the journey will undoubtedly surprise me.