Friday, March 28, 2008

another very TCK rant, if you can stand it

...and if you can't, stop reading. ;o)

Okay, so a few days ago, I wrote about how I get really irritated when people give me 20 seconds of their attention, then turn me off right as I'm in the middle of answering THEIR question.

This isn't going to be a rant about that again.

But this *is* going to be a rant about something else to which I react with anger.

I'll be brief.


To Whom It May Concern--And You Know Who You Are:

Do not tell me I'm not a "good American" because I get upset when you bash Europe. To my face.

Do not tell me that I sound more German than American in my opinions. If I *am* more German, then it is none of your business.

And do not tell me that I need to decide which country I want to be a citizen of in my heart.
Do not have the audacity, the utter gall to say such a thing to me.

______

I'm done.
______

This isn't a cross-cultural re-entry issue for me. This relates to the ever-difficult, ever-present, life-long struggle of feeling torn between cultures. Even after I complete the current cultural transition phase, this isn't going to go away. I accept that, so please don't anyone worry that I'm having a meltdown. I'm not. I just read something this evening that reminded me of the incident described above, and I realized I'd feel better about it if I aired the dirty laundry in public.

2 comments:

The Raabs said...

I of course am not a TCK (although my children will be), but I am irritated and frustrated and disgusted with the same kinds of questions when they come to me. I am a citizen of the kingdom of God. When someone can show me that that is one specific country or culture I will show them why they are completely wrong!
We deal with this on a daily basis - living in Belgium but being part of the church in the Netherlands and being Americans. I have always considered this a positive thing. God put a little bit of real culture in each culture (and Satan messed up bits in each culture as well).
Thanks for letting me air this as well ;-)
Love your thoughts, although I don't check every day.

thegermanygirl said...

Thank *you*, Scott, for commenting, commiserating, and sharing! It's good to know that others experience these things, too. And I always find it interesting that, no matter, which cultures we're from, we TCKs and TCAs always have so many experiences in common!

One thing I just remembered: When I was a kid, visiting the US during the summer, I often had to listen to "other" American kids call me a "Nazi" for living in Germany. I always wanted to hit them for that but never did, because I thought it might prove their point in their eyes.

Nowadays, I wonder if maybe I should've hit them. ;o)