It's 12:37 PM
It's 7' Celsius - very warm now!
"There are those who dance to the rhythm that is played to them, those who only dance to their own rhythm, and those who don't dance at all."
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why they call it the present."
-Jiri Kilian
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why they call it the present."
-Jiri Kilian
I was reading this book on third culture kids the other day, and its intro was basically a very depressing narrative of an American girl having to forever leave Singapore, a place where she spent the whole twenty years of her life. Now, the college-bound girl had tears and snot running down her face as the plane carried her off and away from her so-called home.
She thought she was a part of Singapore.
She thought she belonged there.
She thought she would never have to detach herself from the countless memories that she shared with her Singaporean classmates, Singaporean friends, and Singapore itself.
She thought she had an identity.
She was having a identity crisis. Miss Cry-Baby kept asking herself- Who really am I?
Do I really belong anywhere?
Will I fit in with the Americans?
Will I ever have a place I call home?
Will I be moving around like this my whole life?
Am I going to experience these feelings over and over again until the day that I die?
And probably most importantly - Why is this happening to ME?
To be completely honest, I was laughing at her. I thought she was ridiculously emotionally weak and that she needed to suck it up. She basically got screwed over by her parents' decision of sending her to a liberal arts college in New England area. Some expatriate kid was just pitying herself because she obviously, as you can see for yourself, couldn't cope with a simple change of location. I mean COME ON.
A month later, I find myself laughing again.
I guess I got screwed over by my own decision to come over here?
I'm laughing because now I've become like Crying Pansy Girl in the plane. Sure, I'm a hypocrite with a ginormous tree trunk in my eye, so people! You are welcome to condemn me however you want (like I did to that sissy), but hey, at least I admit of having real human problems.
So many people nowadays just love acting as if their life is perfect. Lying to yourself is never a good thing, man.
That story is incomplete though. Later on, she decides to move back to Singapore after thinking she misses it out so much. She realizes that it wasn't the same since a lot of her friends weren't there anymore and her parents weren't there to take care of her. Money became an issue and it was very difficult.
ReplyDeleteUnless this is a completely different story I'm pretty I read this for my psychology class during our Third Culture Kid phenomenon segment.
The real lesson is you gotta take things slowly. Barely a month has passed for you. Good things come to those who wait. And it's America...most people aren't nearly as worldly as us.