There are moments in life that will change you, and you don’t always know when they’re happening, because it isn’t until much farther down the road that you realize that you aren’t the same.
TCKs are often witnesses to incredible feats of the world and great changes in nations. In January 2011, I was a witness to the beginning of the Egyptian Revolution, and was evacuated in February. For a long time I though of it as something that had happened to me. But recently I have changed the way I think about it as a privilege.
How many people can say that they were a witness to a great change in the world? And how many people who can, can say that they felt safe throughout the experience? I was given an incredible experience that few others have known.
A year ago I decided to get a tattoo to commemorate my experience with the revolution, but at the time I was viewing myself as a survivor of an ordeal. Now I view this as a badge of privilege and honor, because I was a privileged witness to an incredible change in the world.
I don’t allow others to see me as a victim, and so I refuse to see myself as one. I bore witness to a united people rising up despite their differences to be the change that they wanted to see, to change their country. Looking back on my experience I feel empowered and unique, because I know that there are very few people who can say that they witnessed such an event.
