Welcome to Third-Culture Thoughts!

This blog is dedicated to all Third-Culture Individuals who feel like their different life experiences detach them from their own communities. Each post will begin with a prompt, followed by a reflection-style response.

What is a Third-Culture Individual?

Third-Culture Individuals (TCIs), more commonly known as Third-Culture Kids (TCKs), are individuals who were raised in a culture other than their parents or the culture of their country of ethnicity and live in a different environment during a significant part of their developmental years. For this project, I’ve decided to extend this definition to those who had grown up in their homelands, but had left during their youth.

So… Why create a blog?

Our special connection with the different cultures and communities we experience is both a strength and a weakness in identity formation. Exposure to different cultures in the developmental years makes it easier for us to adapt to changing environments and makes us appreciate the complexities of other cultures. On the other hand, having experienced a significant life event such as immigration at a young age, we struggle with connecting with our roots and have difficulties calling our place of residence “home”. We often lack a sense of belonging in our communities, and so, Third-Culture Thoughts addresses the problem of the lack of sharing perspectives on a very relevant and universal event experienced by millions. Being an immigrant at the age of self-exploration has never been an easy journey, and it is even harder to find a safe and inclusive space to talk about these experiences. Because of this, many TCIs are not given the opportunity to reflect on how this life-altering event affects their perceptions of themselves and the world, and especially in finding a community where they truly feel like they belong.

Third-Culture Thoughts will foster that sense of community for those people. Giving TCIs a space to engage in meaningful conversations about lived-in immigrant expriences will encourage the sharing of different perspectives, expel the fear of “talking about the hard stuff”, and propose new ideas on how to cope with adversity.