Introducing Margo. I was born in Germany, speak German and Spanish, moved to Italy, India, Korea, and London UK

Posted by margo08 on November 17th, 2008 | Categorized as Introduction | 109 views and 3 Comments

So I found this site a couple of days ago and I thought it was interesting. It’s good to know people all over the world sometimes do feel the same way as I do, kind of lost.

I’m originally Peruvian-Italian and French, but both my parents aren’t full in touch with their cultures either. My mom lived in Germany all her life and my father moved there when he was 19 to study. I was born in Germany, and raised there for 3 years where I learned to speak German and Spanish (my parents spoke to me in both languages). I moved to Italy at the age of 4 and lived there 4.5 years. There I went to an Italian school and then a German school in Milan. I was fluent in Italian by the time I left the country to go to India. I lived in southern India for another 3.5 years, I attended two international schools over there until the end of 6th grade. After India, I moved to Germany for half a year (and this was the first time I went to a city public school - scary but good experience) sadly I had to leave after only being there for 4 months. This time I moved to Seoul, South Korea. I hated it at first, but you get used to everything I ended up leaving in it in tears to go to college in London, UK. Here I am now, at King’s College London…living in my 5th country. I’m happy to be back in Europe, but my heart is in Asia…I miss it so much and the only people that can understand are my Asian expatriates!

I’ve met all types of people, kids in international school, kids from the streets, my neighbors in Korea, India, Italy and Germany. I got to know US military people, expatriates from all types of backgrounds, embassy people, army brats, educators from different countries who have taught me to be open minded. I am so grateful for this life, it saddens me a bit that some people think it really wasn’t worth it, that the price is too high. In that case I personally believe you don’t have a personality strong enough to handle this. It doesn’t have to do with the traveling and the identity loss but the fact that you yourself haven’t figured yourself out yet. I am young, but throughout my senior year I have noticed a lot of change in myself. I’m secure with myself, I’m proud of what I have accomplished and what I know and how I handle situations and how I look at the world. On the other bright side, being an expatriate has enabled me to travel to great extent! I have seen nearly every country in Asia. Now I need to tackle the Americas, Africa, Europe and Australia!! Still a lot to see.

There were times, even whole periods, of depression but I think the combination of moving around and puberty isn’t easy. Definitly not easy, I moved schools 4 times since I was 12. I did however spend my entire High School life in one school, and thus cannot speak for some that have moved throughout High school, that must have been hard. On the other hand I have seen way too many people come and go. Friendships fade, faces fade and memories fade all too easily after some time.

This is me. My background and a couple of thoughts.

Margo