[Third Culture Kids] struggle with answering simple questions like “Where are you from?” They belong nowhere. They contend with migratory urges and the conflicting desire to root. Travel, adventure, and danger cause them to mature early, yet they continue to experience confusion about their identity, direction, and belonging. Estranged from their parents’ home culture and disconnected from their host culture, they proceed through the world identified as chronic outsiders, known only superficially to those around them, longing, in each new home, to establish connection, yet fearful of becoming too attached. The result is a cultural changeling, alienated from self and aloof from others.
From Unrooted Childhoods, ed. Faith Eidse & Nina Sichel, p. 81
