*Orig­i­nally pub­lished on ThreeThoughtsOn.com. 

When I was eight years old liv­ing in Bor­neo, Malaysia, I used to declare that I would some­day live over­seas. I would hoard sto­ry­books about peo­ple hav­ing tea time in Eng­land or bush­fire tales in Kenya and devour these sto­ries late into the night. Now, I write to you from a hid­den gem in New York City, where this is my eighth move in the last six years, lived in South East Asia, Mid­dle East, North Amer­ica, done devel­op­men­tal projects in Africa and trav­elled to over 25 countries.

Being a global cit­i­zen, I’ve spent the last few years try­ing to under­stand what this means: being stumped every time some­one asks me where home is, feel­ing strangely at home at air­ports and have yet to obtain a valid form of iden­ti­fi­ca­tion that I can proudly flash at bounc­ers with­out explain­ing my life’s story. Only recently, I have begun to fash­ion, per­haps lov­ingly, per­haps reluc­tantly, per­haps nos­tal­gi­cally, a def­i­n­i­tion of ‘global cit­i­zen’ that is uniquely my own on Home, Iden­tity, and Culture.

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” -­ Robert Frost

Most peo­ple piously fol­low a tra­di­tional def­i­n­i­tion and asso­ci­a­tion of home: fam­ily and child­hood. I’ve known for a long time that this isn’t so. And some­times home isn’t where the heart it. Home is where peo­ple under­stand you, where you build your love and dreams. Home is where you grow want­ing to leave, and even­tu­ally yearn­ing to go back. Every day is a jour­ney for me, and this jour­ney is home.

“If you wake up at a dif­fer­ent time, in a dif­fer­ent place, could you wake up as a dif­fer­ent per­son?” -­ Chuck Palahniuk

In this strug­gle to strike bal­ance, know­ing when to stay true to my Chinese-­‐Malaysian roots, when to adopt a new path, I con­stantly ask myself the fun­da­men­tal ques­tions of who I was, who I am and who I am becom­ing. I believe that we build our iden­tity by the deci­sions we make, by the prin­ci­ples we stand up for and unex­plored choices we have in front of us. When I moved from Oman to Canada, the dif­fer­ence in cul­ture was alarm­ing; from the free­dom in speech to ideas of fun. All I could do is con­stantly emu­late the val­ues I hold true to myself, while begin­ning a ten­ta­tive foray into a new cul­ture. In my recent move to New York, I find myself return­ing to those same val­ues: life­long learn­ing, authen­tic con­nec­tions and gen­eros­ity, and I know that this is at the core of who I am no mat­ter what coun­try I am in.

“The key to suc­cess is for you to make a habit through­out your life of doing the things you fear.” -­ Vin­cent Van Gogh

When I moved to Van­cou­ver six years ago, I arrived at the inter­na­tional ter­mi­nal with two lug­gages, knew no one in the coun­try and had a huge ball of fear in my chest. I was fear­ful of let­ting go of my old life. I feared that I would not make friends. I feared fail­ing. Now, hav­ing moved mul­ti­ple times, I’m here to tell you to fear out­ra­geously, fail coura­geously and cre­ate con­nec­tions uncon­di­tion­ally. I con­stantly ask myself: What is the worst that can happen?

So as time bum­bles along, does an indi­vid­ual become more risk averse, cling­ing on firmly to what is famil­iar, or do you seek to expand the world as you know it? As my cur­rent jour­ney unfolds, I am drunk with the pur­suit of learn­ing, immers­ing myself in old inter­ests and reaf­firm­ing fears that I form healthy opin­ions on.

So world, here I come! I guess the next thing to do is finally get my [insert coun­try I’m cur­rently liv­ing in] driver’s license.

Your res­i­dent global citizen,

Joce­lyn
Chi­nese sourced. Malaysian made and cul­ti­vated (Miri, Bor­neo!). Omani improved. Exported to Canada. And now, dis­trib­uted in the United States (New York).