11 Reasons Why I Am Still a Third Culture Kid

A shortlist

1 As a first-grader in Honduras, someone called out “gringa”! Offended, I wanted to tell them I was born there, too!

2 In our international school, as a native speaker of English, I’d get bored, so they let me do two years in one.

3 In my Massachusetts prep school, I got to go to the international student meetings, though I looked and sounded pretty “American.”

4 In Canada, I found myself befriending African and Chinese students; I identified more with them.

5 I never felt like I could fit in completely to Canadian culture, as if I stuck out like a sore thumb.

6 As a student in Mexico, I’d be offended if people considered me American. No, I was Honduran-Canadian!

7 Mexicans wanted to practice English with me; I wanted to show them I could communicate perfectly in Spanish.

8 Even having become a Mexican citizen, my Anglo looks made me “always a foreigner” to most.

9 In a class on identity, for adults, I mentioned that I’ve always felt different from others. The teacher minimized that: “We all feel different.”

10 Walking through a Mexican park on the way home from that class, someone yelled at me in English: Good morning!

11 Full circle: My children have, in different ways, come to experience a similar multicultural identity.