Coming “Home”

Abstract

Born in the United States, I grew up in Senegal, West Africa, where my parents worked as missionary linguists. “Coming ‘Home’” tells the story of my return to the United States after graduating from high school. I frame my personal memories, shared in the form of poems (following the methodology outlined by David Hanauer’s Poetry as Research), with reflexive analysis (using the theory of David Pollock and Ruth van Reken’s Third Culture Kids). I examine the difficulty of leaving particular places and people from the “host culture,” as well as the challenge of transition back into the “home” culture.

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“…These people have had to learn how to behave within a specific community and learn to adapt to the cultural environment. Their children are often considered Third Culture Kid: "a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents' culture, building relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership in any" (Hopkins 2015).…”

“…I identify as a Third Culture Kid. TCKs typically grow up in a "neither/nor world, an "imaginary homeland" so to speak," a world initially defined as a negative construction: "neither fully the world of their parents' culture (or cultures) nor fully the world of the other culture (or cultures) in which they were raised" (Hopkins 2015). In a way, TCK's are homeless and therefore the question, "Where are you from?"…”

“…Like many other TCKs, I will either go into the long explanation and story of my hybridity or sometimes I will go for the quick answer and tell white lies.Being a TCK certainly comes with benefits which has definitely given me an advantage. TCKs are similar to "gifted children" as they share many of the same characteristics, including "knowledge beyond that of their classmates"(Sheard 2008;Hopkins 2015). Individuals who have experienced culturally diverse settings are known to be psychologically more resilient, and interpersonally and academically more proficient(Teoh 2019).…”