- Am I Rootless, or am I Free? This is the question that many "third culture kids" ask themselves, while trying to understand which nationality is theirs. Nevertheless, being rootless doesn't mean they don't belong to one particular place, it means that they choose to belong to any of their choice. The sense of being at home anywhere, yet feeling that home is nowhere, is part of their personal identity.
- "Where are you really from?" is a question that automatically makes one stop and think at lease for some seconds. "Third culture kids" wonder whether the question refers to their nationality or where they were born, or maybe where they are living now, or where their parents live.
By "third culture kids" the American sociologist Ruth Hill Useem, refers to a person who has spent a significant part of their formative years outside their parents' culture. People who fit that bill have a tendency to mix and merge their birth culture with their adopted culture, creating one of their own: a third culture.
"Who am I?" is what our protagonist is trying to understand through her emotional journey while calling her mother. Identity is attached to a sense of belonging, usually through family ties or deep emotional connections. Home suggests an emotional place - somewhere you truly belong, but our protagonist, like many other "third culture kids" never quite felt at home anywhere. It feels sometimes that she is in a limbo, a strange mix of don't-know-what, and it feels as if she'll never find that one place where she truly belongs. But in the end she feels blessed to have had the privilege of experiencing so many cultures on her own.
Living like this can sometimes feel liberating. Our protagonist feels that because she wears so many different masks, she can constantly reinvent herself. But this also presents a dilemma: who is she really are? Which of these masks is the true her? Where does she belong? In her case, this is made even more complex as she is biracial. It feels strange saying where is she really from. Her thoughts are in English while she speaks with her mother in Russian and with her friends in Spanish. Then again, she doesn't feel very Russian either, as she has lived abroad for most of her life. She tries to understand and give herself a complex answer to such simple question.
Being rootless has given her a sense of freedom. She feels grateful for the experiences she's had, and she is proud to feel, above all, like a citizen of the world. The possibilities for the future are endless. The sense of being at home anywhere, yet feeling that home is nowhere, is part of who she truly is.
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