My Motivation...

My name is Joel. I was born in Chattanooga, TN. When I was five, my family moved from Chattanooga to Budapest. I went to a Hungarian daycare, had Hungarian friends, my family had a Hungarian housekeeper (fairly common for that area of the world) all the way through middle school. My parents' jobs changed a little bit when I was in the 8th grade and I then started going to the international school in our suburb of Budapest until I went to college in the Chicago area in 2007.

From the time we moved to Budapest, my family was regularly presented the topic of living cross-culturally and my sister and I being raised as Third Culture Kids (or Cross-Cultural Citizens).

Sociologists have defined Third Culture Kids as “A Third Culture Kid (TCK) is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents' culture. The TCK frequently builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture may be assimilated into the TCK's life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar background.”

Individuals who fall into this category would be people who've grown up in other countries due to, but are not limited to, military or business assignments, missions work (the group I fall into), refugees and immigrants.

Post-college, I worked for a TCK ministry at Cru called MK2MK and there I learned more and more about the world I grew up in. I ended up with a Psychology and Biology degree because I wanted to work with people and animals. I worked for SeaWorld Orlando for 4 years where I engaged with many different cultures and nationalities in a zoological setting.

My motivation in this blog is to help bridge the gap between mono-cultural citizens and TCKs. I will be pulling from my personal experiences, experiences of others and research I've read throughout the years.

Many of my closest friends are mono-cultural (MCs), but I have TCK friends that I dearly love.  Many of those MCs have really tried to learn about what it was like growing up overseas as much as I've wanted to know about growing up Stateside.

Anytime you have questions, comments, insights or stories you'd be interested in sharing, please reach out.  I will not be the only contributor to this space as I have asked some of my friends who have lived internationally and in the States to share some of their accounts.

Joel lives in Birmingham, AL. Currently, he works for Delta Airlines and Starbucks. He just quit the corporate world as a project manager to return to school to become a nurse. He enjoys cooking, running and traveling to new places with friends. Joel has presented more than 20 times on TCK topics and recently has begun talking about living with depression and anxiety. He believes by talking about being medicated for depression and anxiety the stigma will gradually be removed.  

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