Why the past few months have been a momentous time for me

Hello, everyone! My name is Jiwon Lee. I’m a TCK born in Korea, raised in Malaysia and China, and currently a student studying film in Los Angeles.

The past few months have really been a momentous time for me as a TCK. First of all, I’ve been writing and editing my upcoming book called, “The Third Culture Teen: In Between Cultures, In Between Life Stages”. Through the writing process, I got to talk to many amazing fellow TCKs, and it was truly a journey of healing for me. At the same time, the past few months reminded me of the difficulties of being a TCK as well.

When COVID struck China where my family lives, I spent many sleepless nights worrying about them as they traveled between China and Korea for safety. When COVID struck the US, I spent weeks trying to get a visa to go home to China, but in the end, my visa got rejected, and I had no choice but to travel to Seoul, Korea, on my own.

For the past month and a half, I’ve been living by myself in my passport country that still feels so foreign to me. I realized that all this instability and isolation, sadly, is a part of being a TCK as well. I’m still waiting for a day to reunite with my family. Hopefully, this too should come to an end one day.