A Letter About Change

When I was four years old, my family and I hastily left the United States. We landed on the opposite side of the world, The Middle East. What I remembered of America were brief vignettes. One is me, with my shower-combed, short black hair, singing along to the Barney theme song that echoed from the home computer. I remember feeling that I lived in a mansion, even through that was far from the case. Nevertheless, I piloted folded planes from the airspace of the top of the stars to the living room, wishing upon nothing more than Spiderman toys and watching Dora the Explorer.

That all changed when we moved. I went to a place I could barely pronounce by name, a city ironically misspelled on my kid-friendly globe— Dubai (or on my globe... Dubayyi). I observed bare desert, a bare apartment, and a room without much to offer besides the view of unfinished construction sites. I lost my ability to speak Spanish, and instead had to deal with occasional bursts of Arabic. Beyond the presence of my mom and sister, I felt alone. Yet, over time I had great experiences there as a child. My scooter and I battled the sand-swirling roads with determination. I met people of so many different cultures immediately, all expats equally capitalizing on opportunities. I played Mario Kart and ate Batman-themed Fruit Rollups with my Austrian best friend. My second-grade teacher was a tall Dutch woman, and she was my favorite, as she would let me play computer games when I finished schoolwork.

It strikes me now, almost a decade later, how important both experiences of my life were. I came to grips early with the fast-pace of global change, and I embraced it in the same way the unbuilt desert of my Arabian habitat transformed into a city of skyscrapers. I also learned important perspectives on conflict and people. But most importantly, I learned how to embrace a new environment. I established the value our shared humanity, despite elements that try to divide us. I learned the value of a leap of faith, the same faith that carried penniless migrants to the Americas for a fresh life.  

So, for all the Third Culture Kids, the refugees, the people who have moved to new environments (in whatever form that may be) to believe in spite of internally-conceived forces of alienation.
 
Sincerely,
Jamil A.