In the Right Place

Dave is in China right now.  He's staffing his Under Secretary - that's the head of the Bureau on Democracy, Human Rights and Labor within the Department of State.  I posted earlier that these two weeks in China are the pinnacle of his year working the China desk within this bureau.  That could not have become more true with the news this week.

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng rather impressively escaped house arrest and appeared in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing only days before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived for this big summit.  The news coverage has been exciting, with new bits of the story breaking every few hours over the past few days.  And I'm getting nothing more than random texts from Dave, who is right in the thick of it.

Again, I've got to admit that I'm pretty jealous.

And a little bummed.  Because Dave's supposed to get on a plane tomorrow morning and fly home to be with us.  Glad he's spending his time on such worthy endeavors.  But a little jealous of his time, too.

TCK

I like to indulge myself, thinking about how different my childhood was from the childhood of my own kids.  I suppose that's normal - my childhood was certainly different from that of my parents.  But I still find it striking how many parts of their young lives I will not be able to identify with.

As Third Culture Kids (TCKs), our kids fall into this psychological category of people who grew up outside of their passport country, away from their parents' homeland, and as foreigners in their resident state.  Add on the complications of moving every few years, and you can begin life as my children as well.

But don't worry - although there are some pretty typical psychological responses, there are also loads of benefits of this life.  And I'm meeting plenty of young adults (and older adults) who grew up abroad and are not only well-balanced but also pretty enjoyable.

This little video got me thinking about it:


So Where's Home? A Film About Third Culture Kid Identity from Adrian Bautista on Vimeo.