third culture kid

My earliest childhood memory is a jumbled concoction of airport images. Rough landings on rocky tarmac and the irritatingly redundant voices over the loudspeaker announcing gate changes. Delayed departure times. Layovers, turbulence and sleeping on leather benches — the arm-rest sharply stabbing me in the ribs. Duty-free perfume samples. Metal detectors. Overweight luggage. Airsick bags. Passport control — my eyes heavy and legs shaky, as I slowly waddle forward in the crowd, waiting for my turn. A deep grumbling in my stomach lets me know I’m either hungry or nauseated.

There’s an old adage that says, “Love comes when you least expect it.” Cara and Brandon Kelley, and now their son Sidney, are living proof that there’s truth to that proverb. Growing up a world apart, they had no clue that a chance encounter on social media would end in the creation of a happy family. For anyone who hears the story, it seems like destiny.

In the all-too-swift arc that is the story of our lives, we touch thousands, change many, and are ourselves changed — often for the better. If we’re fortunate, our children become our friends, and they are there to honor the work we’ve done in the world when it’s our time to leave it. Such is the story of Edna Motley and her daughter Sonja.

The word “savage” caused decades of pain for millions of indigenous people around the world. Today, one self-proclaimed “savage” is among the Cherokee U.S. Army soldiers who are working to reclaim the ‘S’ word and make it their own.

Longtime entrepreneur Arlene Rivera, 55, is a has been doing hair for three decades. She operated salons in Puerto Rico before relocating to the Rocky Mountains and is a self-proclaimed “hair doctor” who believes that understanding curly and wavy hair is about more than simply knowing an individual’s ethnicity.

As a young child in Santiago, Chile, where I lived near my father’s family, I learned Spanish and English simultaneously and was always encouraged to make art. My Chilean father and American mother ran a theater company there with players from many different countries.

From Greece to The World Starting an inter-cultural family and adopting a transient lifestyle is not always easy. Making that choice; taking the plunge into Third Culture Adult-hood is something that few truly understand. But those who find themselves in […]

Adult Third Culture Kid Traciana Graves is committed to changing the world through her Visionary Leader Network.