My friend, Tigger

Growing up, Winnie the Pooh was a dear friend of mine. My mother tells me that before my brother was born, Winne the Pooh came over to the house all the time. I even put him in time-out once for having a bad attitude. Granted, this was all through the vibrant imagination of a three-year-old. I watched "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" and other Pooh-related films. I liked Tigger, too, but he was never invited over. I liked to keep him in the films.

When I grew up, I discovered that there was a parody psychological analysis chart for the Winnie the Pooh characters. Among these was Tigger: ADHD. Yes, go ahead and chuckle. You know it's all too accurate. Pooh became more relate-able with time, but for far more simplistic reasons than other characters I had grown up with. Later on, I met someone who has come to remind me a lot of Tigger. And yes, they do, in fact, have ADHD. But, more importantly, this friend and I are very different. He is a self-proclaimed pagan and basically makes things up as he goes. I am...the opposite. Sometimes, he's a little much for me. Sometimes, I offend him. But, at the end of the day, we are definitely friends.

Though I'm an adult, I occasionally watch children's films to put myself to sleep. It's nice to have something calm and familiar playing. Recently, I've been using "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" for this purpose. In the scene during which Tigger is introduced, I found myself relating the entire scene to my relationship with my friend. The symbolism was strange, but worked. Pooh inviting "the new sound in" was the fear I had of inviting my friend into my life as a friend. Being a Tigger related to my friend's spiritual identity. Honey was the thing which Pooh would do crazy things for, or my spiritual identity. Heffalumps and woosels related to a misunderstanding which we'd had. (He told me he'd seen angels before and didn't like them, and I thought that what he'd seen was something pretending to be an angel. It turned out later that such was not the case.)
Click here to watch the scene on YouTube.

After seeing this symbolism in pictures from my childhood, I found myself once again amazed at how creative a God we serve. He reveals things to us through the new and through the familiar. And then, sometimes, He uses a mix of both. I ask Him to do the same for my friend, though it may take years for him to see it. 

"I Know, I'm a TCK"

I recently read an article/post by a mother who was comforting a friend of hers. You can read it here: http://www.popsugar.com/moms/Motherhood-Strongest-Bond-36728831

In the post, the author talked about how mothers have a mutual connection because of motherhood. No matter what struggles they go through, they can understand each other by this simple fact: "You know, you're a mom." I'm not a mother, but I understand what the author meant. There are other roles which we take up which allow us to say, "You know, you're a [insert]." College student. Christian. Daughter. Son. The list goes on. There is one role, though, which came to mind very quickly when reading that post.

Third culture kid.

Third culture kids, or TCKs, know another TCK when they see one. I know because I am one. Somehow, we manage to find each other and connect. We see the tendency to quickly adjust to our environment. We see the moves we make to keep peace among our peers. We understand the vast difference between, "Let's go home," and, "I miss home." We know what it's like to say something and realize at the last minute that it wasn't English. We know just how hard, "Goodbye," is.

People like to hear our stories, but not as much as we like to hear each others' stories. It's comparable to Christmas, a time to exchange gifts. If we are only getting gifts, we feel guilty for having forgotten to get others gifts. Or, if we got everyone gifts and no one got us any, we feel left out. Exchanging stories is not that different from exchanging gifts. Those who listen to our stories want to have something to offer back. When they have something to offer back, we enjoy our own storytelling all the more.

When tough times come, we don't have to offer each other any profound words. It suffices to say, "I know, I'm a TCK."

When a TCK freshman comes in, going through reverse culture shock, we can say, "I know, I'm a TCK."
When a fellow TCK goes through grief, we can say, "I know, I'm a TCK."
When they can't make it to a gathering of any kind because of a Skype call, we give them grace and say, "I know, I'm a TCK."

We have been blessed with the fact that there are enough of us that we don't have to be alone. We can encourage each other just by being who we are. We are TCKs. We know.

Letter to My Younger Self

I've seen a few videos on YouTube of people giving advice to their younger selves. I've wondered what I would tell my younger self at times. At this point, though, I think it's time to stop wondering and just get it out.

Dear 2007 me,
8 years from now, you will be sitting at a computer in a dorm basement typing out this blog post to yourself. You've been through some interesting times by 2007 and probably feel like you've barely come through emotionally in the past year. In fact, you're trying to not think about it. But, some of the best times are ahead of you. There are places you will go and people you will meet that will shape your vision of the person you want to become. Be flexible, though. You will think you have a plan on more than one occasion, but it won't always work out. That's okay. You know that God changes people's plans. However, people change, too. You are not exempt from this. It's a good thing.

Right now, you don't know how much of a romantic you are. Your ideas of what you want are actually more idealized than you think; you just think that they're practical. They're not. Life is not as clear-cut as we'd like it to be. Whether you choose to believe it or not, you will, in fact, come to a point where you decide that it's okay to date, even to let a guy know that you're interested. Don't change what you're presently doing in that area right now, though. That guy you have a crush on right now isn't worth it. I know you'll do what's best in the long run and keep your mouth shut. After him, though, you will have to adjust that mindset.
You will have times when you wonder if you're supposed to be single for the rest of your life. Right now, you would find that a strange notion, but there are things which will happen to you that will change the way you see the world. I know that you're looking forward to traveling across the world. That's going to be a big life-changer. College is going to be good, too. In college, you will develop friendships which will help you heal from several wounds which are fresher than you want to admit right now. No, you probably won't have a best friend in a good long while. But, that's okay. You'll still have close friendships and people to guide you.

Keep loving the Lord. He is your hope. Your perspective of Him is going to change as you grow up because you're going to get to know Him more deeply. Keep being positive. Keep letting yourself cry when you need to. In all things, remember, "The joy of the Lord is my strength."

In His grip,
2015 me