Impact on Living Abroad as a Child

I recently asked my youngest daughter how being a third culture kid for six years impacted her. She reported that she learned about other cultures, and how to adjust to living outside her comfort zone. On a negative note, she recalled wearing uncomfortable and unattractive uniforms and how strict her teachers were. When she moved to Sharon, MA she felt more comfortable in her fifth grade class and quickly developed relationships with her new teachers. Conversely, she stated that she didn't have background knowledge of the culture that she moved into when she left Barbados to live in Sharon. She felt at a loss when it came to American history and unfortunately her vast knowledge of Caribbean geography wasn't too valuable for class discussion in her new classroom. When asked how she was different from kids who had always lived in one place, she commented that many of her classmates were unaware of how big the world is; she had been exposed to different cultures so knew that everyone around the world didn't live the same way. Her eyes had been opened up. Interesting to note was her comment regarding her current education class at Elon University where at least half of the students were educated in different countries such as Egypt, and countries in Asia. It wasn't cool that she had gone to school in Barbados since most of the students had been educated abroad.