International kids, annoying and self-righteous paired with a weird Andrew Tate/Madonna in the 90s accent. Essentially, the ultimate cocktail of human to confuse the living hell out of you.
I unfortunately am sort of one of these people. I grew up between The U.K and Hong Kong, raised by parents who also grew up across Asia, who were raised by parents who were also raised around the colonies of the rightfully infamous British Empire.
You see, it’s hard to write an article about how living around the world can be difficult without sounding like a bit of a pretentious douchebag. So I will proceed to do so with this in mind.
If who we are is shaped by where we’re from, the culture we absorb and the people who shape us, then who am I?
The term ‘identity crisis’ is a term thrown around a lot for this generation, the question of ‘who you are’ is one that is puzzling for those akin to me. If who we are is shaped by where we’re from, the culture we absorb and the people who shape us, then who am I? Well I guess we’re a bit of everything but also dangerously close to being a lot of nothing.
The truth is that international kids are often trying to be something that they aren’t, however, this isn’t because they’re fake or disingenuous. The real reason is because they take a bit of the various cultures around them. Now don’t get anything twisted, this is great, one’s personality being formed from an array of cultures has its advantages. It means you can connect with people from all over, you also bear a view that the world is so small as you end up having friends that live pretty much everywhere. I recently went to Vienna and happened to run into an old friend from Hong Kong, then had a night out with him and his American friends, you’ll find that crazy crossovers become a regular and ever-exciting endeavour wherever you are.
... you’ll find that crazy crossovers become a regular and ever-exciting endeavour wherever you are.
However, like everything, even with the great advantages that arise from this, there are also downfalls. Probably the worst, is this feeling that you will never have that solid sense of home anywhere. Although Hong Kong feels like my home, my parents are now here, so that world of memories is now only accessible with an expensive flight and even if I save enough to fund that trip, staying in a hotel out there will never truly bring back the feeling of ‘home’. As well as this, so many of your friends throughout school leave to corners of the world never to be seen again, as their dad or mum found a better job.
Whether being an international kid is a benefit or a detriment changes on a day to day basis, you can truly feel at home everywhere and nowhere at the very same time. This is either an incredible attribute or a source of great isolation, but at the end of the day, I wouldn’t change it for the world.