Who am I, really?

It always seems as though just as I'm once again figuring out who I am, culturally that is, and fitting myself into a rather comfortable box, some humdinger comes at me and I find myself a muddled mess once again. (Yes, I said "humdinger."  That would be the result of many years of Jimmy Stewart movies and the Andy Griffith Show at Grandma's house!)

Being a "cultural chameleon" is a blessing and a curse, that is for sure.  I spent my morning in a very typical American capacity, sitting in the hard, metal bleachers of a high school stadium watching my fifth graders compete in a track meet.  Then I jumped in my car, ran errands, and proceeded to get vehicle maintenance taken care of while I leisurely surfed the web at Starbucks.  I pulled out my laptop, did the usual Facebook stalking (er...perusing), and suddenly found myself in a totally different place mentally, searching through the wonderful work of Third Culture Kids and reading articles that I can relate so clearly to: stories of lessons learned in flight (because Lord knows I've been on enough of those), watching stories that are so like mine, and wondering how I am where I am.  "You are so normally abnormal," they all seem to be reminding me ever so bluntly.

If you haven't read David Pollock and Ruth Van Reken's book "Third Culture Kids" and have spent any significant time as a child in a country other than your own, you really need to.  And if that demographic doesn't fit you, but you have friends or children of your own that fit the profile, you should probably skim it too.

Location: Auburn, WA

Local Time (PST -- GMT-7): 2:58 p.m. (4/28/2012)

Chengdu Time (CST -- GMT+8): 5:58 a.m. (4/29/2012)