Hello All!

Some of you may already know me, but my name is Laura, and I’m a TCK. *cue the stereo “Hello, Laura”*…heh.

I joined TCKid waaay back when there were only 100 or so members, around the time it started last year (can you believe it’s been a year??). As for my story, I was born in Finland, and when I was about a year old, I moved to Germany. I lived in Deutschland for a year, and then moved to the US when I was two years old. I’ve spent every summer in Finland as a kid, to keep up my language skills (we speak Finnish at home, much to the dismay of some of my early teachers), and to “keep up my heritage.” We all know that’s a joke, right? I also spent a year in Finland in high school on a “foreign exchange.” It was the worst year of my life: depression, reverse culture shock, family situation… It broke me, but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?

I found out about TCKs from a lovely counselor, who happened to be a TCK herself! I’ve found that TCKs are rare as counselors, especially here in the middle of Wisconsin!

I currently am a university student here at the University of Wisconsin, and a forum moderator/volunteer with TCKid.com. As for the inactivity from me, I’ve been pretty busy lately with school (organic chemistry killed me, guh.), but this next semester I’ll hopefully have some free time to hang out with all you lovely people, as well as possibly starting a TCK student organization here on campus.

Speaking of student orgs…This is the real reason why I’m writing this today. I met with a “Global Studies Advisor” because I’m planning on moving to Europe after I graduate. I mentioned TCKs to him, and he was really excited about it. Now I’m really excited! I want to organize/structure/plan events well, but I’d only made it through half of the TCK book when I left it at a friend’s place, and now she’s in Africa for the year. *I has a sad* So if you guys have any ideas on how to spread the word about TCKs/structure/fun events/resources/etc., I’d really appreciate it!

Take care, and keep your mind open.

Laura c:

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I am so thankful that a few weeks ago Ruth, the co-author of Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds, has met with some of us third culture kids at my school, UIUC (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). I received a permission from Ruth to share this photo and her insights.

It was very informative and memorable for us. Ruth has given us presentations on the concept of CCK and how TCK fell under the umbrella of CCK. Of the many things that Ruth explained, what warmed my heart was that by introducing the concept of TCK she was giving us the basis of language to refer to our own story and experience. Most of us has never read the third culture kid books and had not known each other on a personal level.

Ruth emphasized that TCKs can be stuck due to unresolved grief, feeling like victims so they cannot utilize their rich resources and talents.

We have shared our own background, identity and sense of belonging issues, repatriation, and a hint of future career. It was emotional for many of us and the ties we could make with each other were healing. I think many TCKs are confused about where they are headed to, what career to pursue which can maximize the resources they have. Ruth told us, “When you are stuck, just do one thing you can do.” You can find one thing you can do and later this will lead to the next one thing you can do. Ruth said there were times she did not know what she was supposed to do but later all she has done in the past came to pieces. They made sense.

It was comforting to hear the truthful words of an older, experienced lady Ruth. Maybe she is pointing to the future. A future that points to another.

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