Hey y’all, my name’s Shreosi Deb, I’m bilingual – I speak English and Bengali, understand bits of Malay, French (doesn’t everyone?) and Hindi, am 16, and I’ve just recently found the term “TCK”, and still wondering if I fit into it.

My passport says that I’m of Indian nationality, but I was born in Malaysia, and spent the first 6 years of my life travelling around the world constantly, because my parents wanted to travel before I had to settle into school. And thus, I was enrolled into Year 1 at an International School, at the age of 5, but didn’t attend school for 3/4s of that year and the next.

My brother was born when I was 5, and my parents thought… well, I actually don’t know what they thought, but they obviously decided it was time to “settle”, to use the word tentively, and so we did, for the next 10 years, in Malaysia. This year, we’ve moved to Melbourne, Australia. I’m still trying to adjust to the weather after Malaysia’s 2 seasons – hot and wet.

I’m not exactly sure what counts as being a “TCK”, but I do know that going to an International School, schools in fact, as I’ve gone to 3 different ones, that you can’t come out without being influenced by other cultures. For example, although my parents are staunch Hindus, we don’t sweep or do any cleaning of any kind on Chinese New Year, because the Chinese believe it brings bad luck, and we’ve picked that up. Like, I, for example, used to refrain from eating in school along with my Muslim friends, to respect Ramadan, and I would feel pretty horrid if I did.

We’ve never gone an entire year without travelling anywhere, and I’d often come home from school on days to find my mother packing suitcases, and find out we were going “on a holiday! =D” 2 days before before school concerts, friends parties and exams, even. Haha, at this point in time, I get extremely antsy if we don’t go overseas once every few months. Last year was a record for us, with 38 plane trips.

I’ve just found the term “TCK” last month, and it brings me such a relief to finally put a label on my situation. I thought I was the only weirdo out there who constantly switches between British, American, Indian and Chinese accents in a space of a few sentences, and relates to everybody and nobody – someone who when asked where “home” is, has a mental block, because everyone I knew seemed perfectly happy in their situation. It irks me when people say, “Well, your home is India.” But, I don’t feel any connection there. “Well, what about Malaysia?” Yes, I did “grow up” there, but now that we’ve left, I have no connection there either. “Think you can make Australia home?” Sure, but I’m already planning on where to move for college. It does become sad that at one point, going to the airport, and getting on planes feel more like “home” than anything else does.

Massive post already, I know, but I’d just like to say it’s really a gigantic relief to find others like me. I felt depressed about my situation, and my parents don’t understand when I talk to them about it, and say, “Well, you should be grateful! Don’t like it, go back to India!” which, to be honest, would invoke a panic attack. When I talk to others about not fitting in, I can’t get more than a few words out, because they’d scoff it off, just pointing out how popular I am. Popularity does not equal the meaning of your life, as most of you know. I’m not sure whether I’m a full-fledged TCK, but I do know the term rings a bell in me.

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