Jan Pavlic

I'm an Adult Third Culture Kid who holds a passport for Canada and the United States and who immigrated to Canada in 1991 and later became a citizen. My birthplace is Florida, but we left when I was five, moving to Germany because of my father's job in the military. We arrived the week the Berlin Wall began being built and lived there during the Cuban Missile Crisis...historical times. We returned to the U.S. four and a half years later, continuing our mobile lifestyle in the southwest, central and northwest parts of the country, occasionally traveling east to see my father's family. After I left home, in 1975, I exhibited the TCK traits of restlessness and wanderlust, living many places in the U.S., attending many colleges and universities. In 1998, I met a Canadian TCK named Mark in grad school in the U.S.; we came to Vancouver for an adventure, married, and stayed in BC. The home we now live in is the first home I've owned and the 35th home I've lived in. My life in Canada is amongst the intercultural community and I've been a part of it since 1998. In 2004, a peak experience in my timeline was to change things forever: my family made a historical trip. Peculiarly, two months before we before we left, Hurricane Ivan made landfall at our destination. After a pause, we decided to go anyway and the aftermath of the hurricane didn't get in our way and, as it turned out, the barrier island protected much of the town. It was the first I'd set eyes on my birthplace since 1960 and the effect was monumental. I could literally feel and *see* internal puzzle pieces falling together. I deeply, instinctually, felt 'home'. It was a purely, visceral experience, completely unintellectual. All my senses recognized the place at a deep level, even though I'd had little experience there and hardly recognized any of the town, visually. The feeling of humidity, the smell and feel of the air, the whiteness of the sand, the emerald color of the water. After returning home, I pretty much had an identity crisis, realizing I was not who I thought I was, that I'd become too closely identified with cultures that weren't mine, that I could never be part of, except in spirit. I felt adrift. I stopped doing many of the things I'd done with regularity and started becoming less close with many of the people with whom I'd become tight-knit. I could only tell them that after I'd gone 'home' and was almost ritually changed. I'd seen where I was from, it fit, and I didn't fit with them anymore, as I once had. Though difficult, I knew I was going to be okay because I had new knowledge of the real me. But it was a mystery to people I'd become close to and I could explain it in no way they could understand. Some time before, in 1996, I'd discovered Global Nomadism, through Norma McCaig's work and organization. It made sense, I read "The Absentee American", made some inroads, but the organization was based in Washington, DC and I was in British Columbia. As it turned out, my life took a different turn, anyway, when I quit my permanent postion teaching at a regional university college in 1997 and moved closer to Vancouver. After a "spiritual sabbatical", I went back to school, received my ESL teaching credentials and devoted myself to teaching immigrant women at a school I formed. From 1996 till now, my TCK work has been put on hold. I'd been doing TCK research off and on for years, but made the plunge reaching out to Brice Royer through Facebook. Through him and the new world that has opened up to me, I see that much has changed since my investigations in the '90s. A huge movement and social network has blossomed, where before it had been in isolated niches like Georgetown U., D.C., etc. Far away from me! The internet has made the world smaller and accessible and I am now making inroads and, as Ruth Van Reken says, beginning to use the 'language'. I am so happy to be part of the TCK community, the heartland. I have very much enjoyed the TCK Academy teleconferences and, as a result, realize I have my grief work cut out for me. Many of the women I taught have children who became automatic CCKs upon immigrating to Canada and they are interested in the field and way of being, too. I am getting my sea legs and will be delving into many areas. Also, a new chapter in my life has begun, as I closed my school in December. I am yearning for a new endeavor, have yet to find out what I will do, but know it will be aligned with my values. I'll put my years of work in community organizing, graphic design; writing and editing; innovation; teaching, mentoring, and leading to good use. I may end up in a purely creative field, as I've been a 'shadow artist' for too many years and want to honor that side of myself. Along with two other women, I am in the midst of a self-guided program that will invite synchrony into our lives with the aim of being led to our calling and I'll let you know what happens! For my avatar, I have chosen the hummingbird because it is the Canadian aboriginal symbol for healing.