A change of plans due to visa issue - TCK thoughts - Soul baring - Izmir

The dual shock of the American school system compounded by American culture.

My worldwide education - the pre-University years

We have come together not because of blood, but because we share bonds of a common outlook on life, a customary way of treating people with respect, and mutual values that resound within all of us - something which unfortunately does not always seem to happen in families related solely by blood (at least in my observation)...

I was speaking with one of my close friends, and we started talking about being embedded in a location versus being a nomad. I feel it is germane to being a TCK, a minimalist, and/or, a digital nomad.

I am a local. I am multi-local: I am or have been a local of London, Lahore, Dacca, New Delhi, Kuwait City, Dhahran, Manila, Bangkok, Pattaya, Tokyo, Salt Lake City, Evanston (Wyoming), Istanbul, Saigon, Hong Kong, Toronto, Freetown, Addis Ababa, Singapore. It seems like a lot but it's kind of a blur.

... It really hit me. I have a serious blind spot as a TCK. And I think I've had it my whole life, and it has unwittingly gotten me into trouble many times.

Genetically I appear to be a white male. However, growing up as a TCK, I have a very checkered cultural makeup. I can discern five or six major cultural components to my personality.

My father was a civil engineer,  and, in his early years, a Wyoming cowboy who fought in WWII. He started going overseas, I believe, in the 50s. Certainly before I could walk he had taken his family to Europe on the Queen Mary, and I remember from stories that I was not yet speaking when we moved to Bangladesh (it was East Pakistan then). He worked on numerous projects all over the world, improving roads, dams, bridges, etc. And on average, up until I was 17 or so, we averaged a different country every 2 - 3 years. 

As part of my minimalism kick, over the last year or so I have been going through what few mementos I still had. Most of my keepsakes burned up in a storage unit fire in the year 1999 - lost everything from my childhood and the military and family (very liberating in a way). But I still had stuff that I carried with me.

Minimalism. What does it mean? At the risk of sounding vague, this absolutely depends on the individual. However I am approaching it from the point of view of a serial expatriate, and as a TCK. And I'm sure other serial ex-pats and TCKs will be able to relate to this.

Although I understand and really identify with the idea of a tribe ... I remember from a podcast somebody, I believe Seth Godin, talking about finding the smallest number of people that you can have a positive impact on. I have yet to find that tribe, although I have a good idea of where to start looking.