Hola! Finding this forum was like stumbling onto a doorstep in the middle of a blizzard and being let into a warm home, with a fire blazing, and then being offered hot cocoa in a huge mug! Sniiffff. Can you tell I’m touched, relieved, and over all excited about joining?

I’ve been “out” as a TCKid since my university days, when I joined an International Club and found myself, as well as some life-long friends. Prior to this, my four siblings and I referred to ourselves as “Dip Brats”, and as far as we knew, were the only members of this rather strange, sometimes lonely, and very exclusive group. It was better than the other term I would use, laughingly, to describe myself (“mongrel”). We comforted ourselves as well as we could. We shuttled as children of a diplomat from the Philippines, to the US (10 years), Australia (1-4 years, depending on which sibling you speak to!); back to the Philippines; then back to the US…and from there, we scattered all over the globe.

So don’t be surprised if my whole clan signs up, as I’ve excitedly sent them the link. Buy one, take all five.

Home for now is Singapore, where my husband and I have spawned two CCKids of our own. My teenagers have never lived in the US, but speak with flawless Midwestern US accents (my legacy lol); and know just a few phrases of their native Tagalog. They are culture chameleons, who can’t wait to enter university abroad when they graduate from their international high school. That pretty much cements their destiny as Global Nomads, and so I feel I’ve come full-circle.

Who am I? I am Filipino by birth, Chicago Catholic schoolgirl by upbringing. I texted my Irish friends “Erin Go Bragh” this weekend, because I’ve known this phrase since I was seven, and commemorate all American holidays.

I am thoroughly Western in outlook in an Asian environment. And even in a multi-racial, multi-cultural country like Singapore, I am still stumped when asked “Where are you from? I was four when I first stepped onto an airplane, and today find it impossible to sit still for more than a month. I travel compulsively, and speak in the only accent that I feel is universal: my writing, and my photographs.

I’m so glad I’ve found this place.

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