What is TCKGlobal, What is the TCK Crew? & Why is it a dream come true?
How TCKGlobal started
I founded Third Culture Kid Global ‘TCKGlobal’ at the end of 2016. I created TCKGlobal as means to find others like me.
I wanted to meet people from around the world with uprooted upbringings to gain a deeper understanding of myself, and, at the time, to make sense of my lack of sense of belonging.
I experienced most of my formative years in international school bubbles in Guangzhou and Beijing. Reality hit when I moved to Hong Kong and London for tertiary education. I was no longer surrounded by people who found being surrounded by vast mixtures of cultures ‘normal’.
During these years, I found many international friends I grew up with felt the same way. As I write this article I am aware of the privilege I have had for having experienced such an international upbringing, and it humbles me. But it was my reality, it was our reality. We did not choose to be brought up internationally, we just were. To us, that is what ‘normal’ was.
While it was an incredible experience, it did mean having realisations further down the line of the inability to fully belong in any specific geographical location. It meant not being able to completely be myself… anywhere, without feeling a tad (or extremely) out of place.
To understand my lack of sense of belonging I decided to try and connect with others who have had similar experiences. I wanted to see if we could find belonging in each other. I wanted to re-create the international environment I had in my formative years, with a goal to maintain it for generations. And to my happy surprise… through TCKGlobal that’s exactly what we’ve started to do!
The TCKGlobal community experience
In 2019 TCKGlobal started to catch the eyes of third culture kids around the world who were looking for a place to call home.
In 2020, the pandemic hit. Third culture kids around the world had many travel plans cancelled, which meant the inability to see loved ones. This was particularly difficult for those who live away from families and close friends for a majority of the time and rely on frequent travel to see them regularly.
Thankfully, through the power of wifi, more third culture kids started to hear about TCKGlobal through word of mouth, or by accident on Youtube and Instagram. Before you knew it, third culture kids worldwide were joining the community and started participating in zoom calls to meet one another!
Initially, our zoom calls were ‘get to know each other’ calls. We realised how much we enjoyed each other’s company and the calls turned into routine calls hosted on multiple days per week.
Eventually, our community started getting creative which led to us having awesome movie nights, game nights, well-being calls, and a bunch of other activities we do together remotely…globally!
By the end of 2020, we can say we have finally created a strong foundation of a TCK family. We are our own TCK crew and we’re excited to grow as more third culture kids from around the world ride this journey with us.
What is the TCK Crew?
I call the members of our TCK family a ‘crew’ because in a way we all decided to take the same flight and go through this journey together.
Who are in the TCK Crew?
Members of the TCK Crew are third culture kids from around the world who have joined our ‘wifi TCK homes’ on Whatsapp and Discord.
Our Philosophy comes in the form of TCK Crew Safety Instructions
To celebrate our TCK crew I have created safety instructions in collaboration with our captains and copilots for those who board our flight. These guidelines were made with great consideration of the culture of being open to cultures. They are here to ensure the best experience, and safety of our new passengers, frequent flyers, copilots, and captains alike. It’s important to know these guidelines before take-off to ensure the smoothest and most exciting life-long flight with our TCK Crew.
- No hate speech, derogatory, or racist language and remarks.
- Weroffenheit “World Open” in German: To be open to global perspectives, cultures, religions, views and upbringings.
- Neugier “Inquisitiveness” in German: To be curious, ask questions, engage and share knowledge with the community.
- Nagbibigay “To be a person that gives” in Tagalog: To have a mindset of contribution, to be there for one another in times of happiness and in times of need.
- La dolce vita “Sweet life” in Italian: Focus on a positive environment and good energy.
- Mentor: Being able to teach something you’re good at, share your expertise. Together, we can make each other better.
- “No man left behind”: Everyone is a valuable member worth hearing, listening to, and learning from.
- Atento “Attenti” in Italian: Being there to support and attend to everyone in the community.
- Vox populi “Voice of the people” in Latin: Don’t be afraid to speak your mind and use your voice.
- Party like a TCK: To celebrate all different cultures and their variety of customs and viewpoints.
Board our flight and be part of our TCK family!
Who can join?
All our members are third culture kids and those who are likeminded. This means you don’t strictly have to categorise yourself in any single ‘third culture kid’ definition. You may or may not have moved around frequently in your formative years. The most important thing is that you relate to lacking a sense of belonging in a single geographical location, and understand the meaning of “not knowing where home is”.
How to join the family:
2. Receive a Discord link.
3. Enter Discord and join an onboarding call! At the onboarding call, you’ll be provided with information on:
- How to navigate the online community
- How to select which TCKGlobal sub chats you want to join
- How to use online tools we use to engage with one another
- How to attend global events we host online
4. After the onboarding call, you’ll be:
- Placed in our TCKGlobal WORLD chat and Discord channel filled with third culture kids from around the world.
- Added into TCKGlobal sub chats you shared interest in joining. TCKGlobal sub chats include things like: Book Club, Mandarin speakers, Spanish speakers, Asia region, and so much more!
Watching a dream turn into reality
Members of our TCK Crew ask me what it’s like to see a distant dream turn into reality. And honestly, it’s an unbelievable experience.
It was only a few years ago when I dreamt of having an international environment where racism is 100% banned, all cultures are encouraged to be shared. A place where people are encouraged to accept one another with open arms and to learn from everyone's cocktails of cultures. A place to feel at home in, at the tips of my fingers, at all times, regardless of my location.
There have been constant remarks of building this community as “not useful” and a “useless” initiative. Some have said “it brings no value”, while others said, “it’s for those who are spoiled”, or “I don’t get it, but ok”.
And there have been countless times when I started to believe people who would say these things. I had moments when I would question my own identity when the idea of this community was questioned.
But today I can say I’m glad I believed in our community and I am humbled to say that this community is thriving.
I am forever grateful to TCKGlobal’s early adopters. Without you, we wouldn’t have the home we have built today with open doors for more to come in.
Now, we can proudly say TCKGlobal is a place third culture kids from all over the globe can call home, and we can’t wait to meet the rest who will join!
Make third culture kid friends on:
Instagram: @tckglobal
Website: https://www.tck.global/
