Denizen | for third culture kids

I was recently invited to present to a group of high school and college students at Clark University’s annual Third Culture Kid / Global Nomad Conference. The topic I chose to speak about was “Finding Home.”
In this presentation I walk through the question that lead me to creating DenizenMag.com, how difficult it is for Third Culture Kids to understand that “home” is not a place, and why I think it’s important to define “home” for yourself....

It was the middle of the night on Pulau Babi Hujong. The air was humid and still, as you would expect from an island near the equator in the South China Sea.
As a teenager, it was one of the many weekends my dad and I would leave Singapore in favor of scuba diving on the islands off Mersing, Malaysia. We were sleeping on our cots on the beach. The moon was full, and we heard something moving between us...

This morning, what sounded like traditional German folk music wafted from our upstairs Afrikaans neighbour’s window. It was so faint, it put me in a daze. My memory transported me to southern Germany, where I was cruising along swaying green fields,...

Leaving my schools on my last days felt heavy. I knew as I put my indoor shoes in my bag for the last time that I wouldn’t ever come back as a teacher, met by smiling faces and cheerful greetings. Bidding goodbye to a now pristine and empty house, the...