How Being A Third Culture Kid Helped Me In Traveling

I should have planned to give a common answer to both the girls in order to avoid those confused stares – left them thinking I am a liar.

I just reached my hostel in Istanbul after an unpleasant ride from the airport including a long bus ride and two cab drivers trying to rip me off my money and low-key hitting on me.

“Welcome to our room”, were the words that rushed a wave of much-needed relief in me after quite an adventurous long journey to the hostel. It was Sia who welcomed me, a lovely Chinese woman in her late twenties getting ready to explore Istanbul as I dragged my heavy suitcase through the tiny entrance of the hostel dorm room.

‘Thank you so much’, I said and while still making way to my bunk-bed in the not-so-spacious room, I saw another young lady sitting on one of the beds and nodding her head while smiling like she was also welcoming me in the room. I smiled back.

Being someone not great at initiating conversations, I only focused on making room for my suitcase, when Sia interrupted to ask my name. I replied, ‘Rahma, and you are?’, shifting my focus again to the suitcase. ‘I’m Sia from China, where are you from?’ Oman, I said, without any slightest delay, as if that is where I actually belonged from…

She then continued with her makeup and me with finally plugging my devices on charge and settling in my tiny bunk bed. I had just got in my bed in peace, and right at that moment, I heard someone in broken English ‘hey, so you Arab’?

I always used to think that this very question ‘where are you from’ was a subtle way to initiate a conversation with women used by flirty men but well, in a short span of ten minutes, I had now hear it from two girls.

Again not taking much time, I corrected the other lady in the room about where I was from. But my answer sounded like, ‘no I am from Pakistan’.

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What Is Your Definition of Home?

The country where you grew up, spend your entire life or the country where you belong from officially, where your parents are from and you hold a passport from?

This is the most difficult question every third culture kid like me has to answer.

Born to lovely Pakistani parents, I grew up and still continuing to living in Muscat, Oman. I am proudly yet sometimes confused – a third culture kid, a term I always use to explain to new people when they asked me where I am from. Well, not all of them understand it in a straightforward manner but a few here and there smiles back at me acknowledging that it is unique and cool!

Diversity, We Breathe

Among many other pros of being a third culture kid, diversity has to be my most favorite! Growing and living in a mixed environment and cultures different from your native, gives a lot of opportunities of coming across people from different countries – which in turns help you in learning and getting acquainted with different nationalities quite easily.

From completing half of my education from Indian and Bangladesh administrated schools in Muscat, in my very first workplace I encountered people from the Philippines, Egypt, India, and Syria. At a young age, even before I started traveling – listening to the stories of their countries from my colleagues I felt like I’ve been there and seen those places with my eyes or knew about their people just like mine…

Cultural Shock – Rarely Happens

Growing up in a culturally diverse environment never made me realize what exactly it feels like being a third-culture kid. It was when I stepped beyond my home countr-ies, I realized how unknowingly my mixed cultural life made it so easy for me to get acquainted with a new place and its people. And a great bonus for anti-social souls like me – it often helps in breaking the ice and initiating a conversation with a stranger.

On my first solo adventure in the island of Langkawi in Malaysia, when I was kind of stranded at the highest point on the sky bridge with heavy rain clouds pouring in and visibility almost falling to none – a little worried me tried to find shelter from the rain and stood close with a lady who was almost the last one filling up the sheltered space. To the inconvenience I caused to her, trying to be kind, I struggled to look for a nice way to initiate a conversation with her when I heard her taking in Tagalog with her friend. Right then, I knew how to break the ice.

‘Magandang Hapon, Kumusta?’ (Translation: ‘Good afternoon, how are you?’)

Yes, my fairly little knowledge of Tagalog I knew from my Filipino friends back home saved the day for me when I surprised the lady starting a conversation in her language to whom I bothered just a few minutes back. She was so surprised seeing a brown clumsy girl speaking Tagalog that not only she offered me to take refuge in her umbrella but also accompanied me for lunch.

Every third culture kid can relate to the immediate connection which is made when you encounter someone who has just like you, lived between the worlds. And the curiosity to hear the answer from, where are you from, is always the same for you two!

Conclusion – The Change

Growing up as a third culture kid, I never realized how it would help me in pursuing my biggest dream of traveling the world.

Change, yes, it has changed me in ways I never imagined!

From widening my perspective about different people and culture I come across which are very different to mine, to easily mingling with strangers on my solo adventures and my most favorite one of telling stories of the different nationality friends I grew up with to random people, being a third culture kid has in short made my life easier and happier!

After a lot of embarrassing and weird experiences involving me struggling to answer the million-dollar question of ‘where are you from’, I am still unable to find its true answer.

I have come to terms that there is no right or wrong answer to it. Oman is as much my home as Pakistan is. I don’t have a home country, but home countr-ies.

Signing off with a parting piece of advice for all the third culture kids out there – always decide a common answer to give to two different people in the same room :p

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