As a design strategist gone MBA, gone startup founder, gone lifestyle researcher, and now UX researcher, I’ve worn many different hats over the past 12 years. Following my curiosity, connecting diverse experiences, and discovering possibilities has been the defining pattern of my path — but it’s a pattern that began long before I joined the work world, and it’s by no means unique to me alone.

When I was 12 years old, my family moved from a small town in Massachusetts to Quito, Ecuador, where I enrolled in a local school, became fluent in Spanish, and assimilated to the culture. I returned “home” to the U.S. three years later, only to be blindsided by reverse culture shock. I no longer knew how to fit into my own culture or, for that matter, how to navigate an American high school. An outsider yet again, I felt simultaneously exposed and unseen. It was only through lots of exploration, a good deal of confusion, and more time abroad that I came to understand I didn’t have to pick between cultures. Aspects of each made me who I was.

Years later I stumbled upon sociologist Ruth Van Reken’s book Third Culture Kids, which shed light on my experience — and gave it a name. In her research on expats in the 1950s, she discovered that people who moved to a different culture had actually formed a third culture — one that was distinct from their home and host cultures. She calls children who grew up this way “third culture kids” and explains that “through friendships that cross boundaries, they’ve learned the very different ways people can see life.” I’ll never forget the day I spent reading Van Reken’s book cover to cover, and how everything suddenly made sense. This explained why I navigated life and work the way that I did, and that there were others out there like me. I wasn’t alone.  (more…)