TCK Voices: Waiting Two Years to Go Back to China
A couple of the hardest things are the feeling of being stuck between two worlds and not being able to have a constant group of friends with you in person.
A couple of the hardest things are the feeling of being stuck between two worlds and not being able to have a constant group of friends with you in person.
Change creates so much upheaval. It can leave you feeling lonely and out of place as the “new kid.” It can leave you feeling frustrated and angry because your life seems to be spinning out of control.
Being a foreigner seemed to have many downsides to it, and I felt different and useless. I wanted to find a purpose in being different, something about being different that made me useful in a special way, but I never did find that…
You will never find two people who share exactly the same story. But let’s say that many TCKs do have one thing in common: Their stories can’t be compared. They’re too different.
Right after we arrived in America, lockdowns started. It was a pretty tough time for my whole family – being away from my dad, finally being back where our friends lived but unable to see them.
As a child, I struggled to acknowledge my losses, so I ended up suppressing most of my emotions. In my early teens and after my first repatriation, I struggled with identity and belongingness as I couldn’t fit into my birth country…
Being a TCK has pushed me closer to God than I could have imagined. At times, in the moving and the whirlwind of new faces, it has felt like God is the only being who truly knows me. The only one who wants to know me…