People Like Us

It's Wednesday podcast day!

People Like Us is a collection of interviews with TCKs about their TCK journey and where they are now.

Ibtihal Ahmed grew up the daughter of her diplomat dad, being raised in 6 countries – USA, Algeria, Sudan, Japan Malaysia and India. She talks about being the girl with the American accent and describes how locals in your native country just know that you’re not a local, despite you thinking that you look like one.

Ibtihal writes about her TCK experiences, both in Arabic and English. Here is a sample of her work, on being a TCK:

Crossing oceans was quite the experience. I hid every piece of my being underneath the promising tide lines. I was here and there, but neither here nor there. I was fascinated with arrival signs the same way departure tunnels propelled me with the exhilaration of make-believe presence. I have always been excited to leave and arrive at the same time. It’s like my identity was tied to in-betweenness and a fog that surrounded my soul whenever I was asked where I was from.

Amanda Bates grew up between the USA and Cameroon. Moving to Cameroon when she was 9 saw her move from being in the minority to the majority, at least from a physical perspective. She describes living in several places within the USA and the vast contrasts across the country, likening it to nine different countries.

Amanda is fascinated in navigating cross-cultural spaces and identity and is the founder of The Black Expat – a multimedia platform focused on Black identity and international living.

Nurly Yusof grew up as the daughter of a diplomat. She was born in Morocco then moved as a baby to Russia. This was followed by Malaysia (her passport country) then Hungary, Qatar then back to Malaysia. Then her parents moved to Singapore for her father’s last posting and she finally moved back to Malaysia.

Amanda Mulder was born in The Netherlands to a Dutch mother (who was born and spent her early years in Australia) and an Indonesian father.

She moved to Brazil at 10 years old then Belgium at 15, followed by university in Great Britain. Amanda followed in the footsteps of her mother, moving to Australia as an adult. She has made many moves since!

Somare Nicole Peyton was almost born in the Philippines like her brothers, but was actually born in Texas, USA. She did move to the Philippines at a very young age and moved again, within the country, before going to high school in Texas.

Somare describes the difficulties of her moves, both international and local, for both she and her parents. She also talks about what it means to be a TCK screamer or wallflower and how she discovered that she is a TCK.

Listen to Somare’s long held desire and plans to work with and help other TCKs.

Galindo Aliyo was born in Uganda then when she was almost 3, her family moved to what was then called Swaziland, now Eswatini. She lived amongst different cultures in Swaziland until she was 15 and then moved back to Uganda.

She was drawn to humanitarian work and her TCK background enables her to empathise with the refugees that she helps in her role as a lawyer.

Aman Singh was born into an Indian diplomat family and despite being Indian he doesn’t feel like an Indian and describes experiencing reverse culture shock in India. He spent his TCK upbringing in Spain, Bulgaria, India, Mexico and Myanmar then went to the USA for college.

Mexico evokes mixed emotions for Aman since it was the first place that felt like home, but he also incurred a profound loss there.

Aman also talks about the classic TCK conundrum of stability versus travelling (to stay or not to stay…)

I am delighted to announce that as the 25th episode of the second series, this is the 50th episode!!

In this episode I had the pleasure of chatting with a former coaching client, Frank Nilsen.

Frank grew up between Norway and the USA (moving between the two many times during his upbringing). He talks about the many changes that he has experienced in his life (relationships, career, locations).

Listen as he describes how coaching helped him calm his “three year itch” and take control of the choices available to him.

And in Frank’s words:

The coaching sessions with Jenny helped me recognize that a nomadic TCK (third culture kid) background is a platform to build upon rather than a "swamp" to get us stuck. Jenny's calm demeanor and thoughtful observations lead me to consider how I can harness my rootlessness and restlessness energies to become part of purposeful decision-making rather than drivers of my decisions.

Working with Jenny—a TCK herself—meant that I could forego a lot of time that might otherwise be spent with background explanations. We were able to “cut to the chase” since her starting point is an understanding of what it means to grow up on-the-go. The sessions with Jenny allowed me time to examine my TCK liabilities while exploring ways of converting those into constructive focus going forward.

MaryAnne Camaiani is a Norwegian, Filipino, Canadian who grew up in Ethiopia and Nigeria and has Italian children. She was adopted at 9 ½ months and went to boarding school at the tender age of 6 years old.  MaryAnne resisted one of her childhood moves by not boarding the plane to leave.

Listen as MaryAnne talks about what home means to her, with 30 moves under her belt, and describes the adventure of getting to know people and seeing beyond the visual differences.

Marion Lougheed grew up in Canada (where she was born), West Africa, Belgium and Germany.

She describes how it can be easier to be a foreigner in a country than a “local” (ie having been born in Canada, lived there for a few years, then returned later.)

She also talks about how hard it is to explain life in Africa to those who haven’t lived there!