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Me, a Finnish Global Nomad

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Author:
joannak

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Hi all,

Been looking around this site for a while, so thought it time to introduce myself before getting into some of the discussions. I was born in Finland, though my (Finnish) parents were already living in Australia at the time, so at 3 months I moved to Australia. When I was 2 we moved to Finland, then back to Australia when I was 4, followed by Brazil (6-9), Finland (9-10), Tanzania (10-12), South Africa (12-15), Hong Kong (15-17) and Brazil (17-18). I then went off to Univ in Canada for a few years, then transferred to Univ of Helsinki, Finland. I had all intention of staying in Finland for “ever”… even so,  I did spend all summers travelling and working overseas (settling down wasnt as easy as I expected and the wanderlust hit really hard after each study semester!!)… then somehow ended up meeting my future (Dutch) husband, who was not a TCK, but did have”itchy feet”, and we shared a common love of Africa. So eventually we ended up moving to South Africa. I have now lived in SA for 9 years (an eternity for me!) and had no real desire to move anywhere… Had a nice settled life with good career and pets and horses and a “hobby farm”, and 2 great kids (2nd generation TCKs).  But now once again we are considering moving… am both thrilled by the idea as well as dreading it.

I went through this whole identity crisis thing after leaving high school. I went to international schools so everyone else was also a TCK and so I always felt right at home and “normal”. Only afterleaving that cocoon did I realise that my upbringing was not really the norm… I did a lot of reading and searching and came to realise I was a TCK. There was even quite an active Finnish TCK group I attended whilst at Univ of Helsinki. I came to realise what parts of my personality are from my Finnish roots (hatred to small talk, bluntness, love of nature), and what are a result of my TCK history (fear of commitment, ability to be a “social chameleon”, resilience, open mindedness, dislike of judgemental attitutes…). I am now quite comfortable with who I am and for the most part believe that being a TCK is a great richness and blessing.  I just hope that I am able to provide my kids with some roots (Ialways have felt I have Finnish roots), but also the wings to fly, and a comfortableness with being a TCK. I guess I should be able to better understand their issues as I am also  a TCK, whereas my parents didnt really understand the issues we had as a result of moving around (there werent that many Finnish TCKs in the ’70s and ’80s).

Cheers to this kind of forum! Had it existed when I was going through my ID complex, it would really have helped a lot!

 joanna


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June 12, 2008 | Filed Under Introduction 

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Comments

4 Responses to “Me, a Finnish Global Nomad”

  1. 1
    USAFinn
    USAFinn Says:
    June 13th, 2008 at 3:01 am

    Tervetuloa TCKidiin! Puhutko sinä suomea?? Minun kielioppini on todella huono kunnes kirjoitan jotakin! Osan puhua kyllä mutta en kirjoitaminen! ^^;

    I’m also a Finnish TCK! Though for me, I moved to Germany when I was 1 year old, and then to the US when I was 2 and have been there ever since (with a few moves within the country). I spent every summer of my childhood in Finland, so I kind of count my childhood as being between the US and Finland.

    Welcome again!!

    (Is this spam?)

  2. 2
    Unregistered
    Marie Says:
    June 13th, 2008 at 3:34 am

    Hi Joanna,

    Welcome to TCKid! I felt the same way as you, I had no idea (relatively) that I was “brought up outside the norm” until I was about… I could give you an age but it was only about two years ago :). South Africa eh? I’ll be there in a week!! (never been before, and am VERRRYY excited).

    Marie

    (Is this spam?)

  3. 3
    jackrabbit
    jackrabbit Says:
    June 15th, 2008 at 2:14 am

    Hi! I just discovered this site a few weeks ago and it is very liberating to discover there is a name to what i am. being able to call myself a tck - i feel like i have an identity now for the first time.
    Also, i was reading your posts… it’s a tck thing to be a social chameleon? That makes sense. I’m a complete cultural chameleon and have been put down for it and told basically that it’s a character flaw. It’s just i really have no definitive culture of my own since i’m such a mix of different cultures, so i just adapt to whatever culture i’m with. except it seems somehow easy to adapt to other cultures but hard to adapt to what should be my ‘own’, white north american culture. I always feel a bit in culture shock in white suburbia.

    (Is this spam?)

  4. 4
    dilia
    dilia Says:
    June 16th, 2008 at 7:13 am

    HI welcome; meet Finnish people everywhere :)
    so you probably have learned some dutch as well; having a Dutch husband and staying in SA.

    Tot ziens!

    (Is this spam?)

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