TCK Voices: Seeing the Possibility of Connection Everywhere

Today we have Tasha with us! Welcome, Tasha!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and the different cultures you are part of?

I am the daughter of a Korean immigrant mom and a white Californian dad. I grew up both in the U.S. and overseas in Tokyo, Japan, during elementary school, and then later moved to Germany as a young adult. Dual cultures and table spreads have been a part of my daily life and home as far back as I can remember. My upbringing in more than one world has also been part of my being since I was in my mother’s womb.

If you could choose one place from your travels as a TCK to revisit, where would it be and why?

While I’ve been back in Japan since living there as a kid, I haven’t been back to the neighborhood/area I grew up in or the school I attended. I’d love to go back and rewalk the streets where I learned to ride a bike, be in the subway station my family and I used, see if our apartment condo is still there and what it looks like now and note what’s changed, and walk the halls of my old school. There’s something sacred about physically being in a place that holds such formative memories — especially for those of us who have to work to keep those memories in our minds and hearts because of geographical distance.

What is an advantage of being a TCK?

There are many beautiful gifts offered to a TCK — however, it’s important to say that although many of us have such a unique understanding of the world, none of our experiences are exactly the same.

To be able to have our worldview stretched and expanded, and to experience the richness of other places and peoples, cultures and traditions, and not only see ourselves in “one light,” is such a beautiful offering. It’s something I will always see as an advantage of being a TCK.

How has being a TCK helped you when interacting with people? 

Being a TCK and growing up mixed (or biracial) has disrupted nationalistic tendencies when it comes to interacting with others and building community. While I am happy to be American and own that part of who I am, I see value and beauty and reflections of God in the people I meet or come across all over the world. I know that real and deep friendship and understanding can be built between people of different cultures, countries, and backgrounds. I see the possibility of connection everywhere and no less among those who don’t share the same nationality as me.

What characteristic of God have you learned most about in your life as a TCK? 

That God is expansive and diverse. Each place and people offers something new to learn about our Creator, and there’s so much hope in that. Every time I have lived in or visited another place or culture, I’ve seen how the people there reflect God in a way I haven’t known — and it’s grown my understanding of who Jesus is and how deep, high, and wide His love stretches.  

I can remember sitting in a dark room eating a meal by candlelight on the shores of Lake Kivu, in Rwanda. My host served a group of us a meal his mother had made him. We ate by candlelight because the power had gone out, and as I spooned out this dish made with love — a recipe unfamiliar to me but one that had also withstood the passage of generations and a genocide, the sacredness of that shared meal, and God’s love, hospitality, and wide welcome shining through my new friend, was inescapable.

What is one thing you would like to tell your fellow TCKs?

Growing up in a liminal* space is a superpower — not a power to hoard over others or to boast about — but a superpower that enables us to see and love others like us and unlike us, with the love of God. Bearing witness to the imago Dei** in other nations has given us stories to tell and songs to sing. Tell them. Sing them. Let everyone know how beautifully expansive, creative, and loving God is.

Do you have a social media account, a website, a book you have written, or a podcast you would like to share with our readers so they can find out more about you and connect with you?

Yes! 

My book is, Tell Me The Dream Again: Reflections on Family, Ethnicity, and The Sacred Work of Belonging.

I have a substack where I send out Shalomsick Notes.

And my Instagram handle is @tashajun.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Tasha! 

Footnote:

* Liminal: ajective. Of, relating to, or being an intermediate state, phase, or condition : in-between, transitional. Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liminal

** “Imago Dei”: Latin for “image of God.”