Hey there! Hope you’re doing well! ❤
I’d love it if you tell me a little bit about yourself. What’s your name? How old are you? Where are you from?
If you were to ask me this set of questions, I’d struggle a little bit, not going to lie. Especially with the last one. My thoughts would be something like this “Where I am from? Do I say where I live now? Or do I say where I was born? I think I should say where my parents are from. But my passport says something completely different. But then again, I did consider those 2 years in Brunei to be home…but I don’t even speak the language! Ugh.”
Being a TCK (third culture kid), I struggle with my identity. “Where is home?” is something I’ve thought about for a long time. Having lived in 8 different countries (moved to different cities within the same country too) and going to 11 schools in different corners of the globe, your sense of self is questioned – many times!
There were many other challenges too of course. Constantly leaving behind my friends and being the new kid in school wasn’t easy. We didn’t have social media back then so keeping in touch was really hard! Getting used to different cultures and languages was another big challenge. But my parents always taught my sisters and I to be open minded and to take everything in as an opportunity to learn.
Here is a rough outline of my life (and I’m only 27 😛 ) :
Born in Swansea, Wales –> London, England –>Dhaka, Bangladesh –> Syracuse, USA –> Dhaka, Bangladesh –> Toronto, Canada –> Suva, Fiji Islands –> Montreal, Canada –> Toronto, Canada –> BSB, Brunei Darussalam –> Montreal, Canada –> Dubai, UAE –>Montreal, Canada –> Toronto, Canada (phew!).
It’s after I went to university and met other TCKs that I started to be more comfortable with answering questions like, “where are you from?”. I realized that it’s okay to have a long and confusing answer. This is my life, my experiences and it is absolutely okay. It’s when I started accepting that, did I finally realize just how blessed and lucky I was! Alhamdulillah. Getting to see so much of this beautiful world of ours is an experience some people would give up everything for.
I feel so honoured to have met and learned from people of different cultures, different religions and different skin tones. It’s so important to respect our differences, but also to acknowdlege and admire our similarities.
And that got me thinking, I want to showcase these differences. I want to learn more about the world. I want to hear your stories. And I want to do it through food (for now!). I am going to start sharing recipes from food bloggers from around the world. My platform and audience is small, I am still learning about this world of instagram and blogging, but this is something I am super excited to start and share with you.
Do you want to be featured on my blog? I’d love to hear from you!
iBakeMemories 