My Home Between Two Worlds | Samantha Fogelson | TEDxColegio Maya Youth
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BmcTkvqtDc Video ID: 3BmcTkvqtDc ============================================================ [Music] Before we start, I would like to ask you a question. Where are you from? For you, that might seem easy to answer, but for me, it's one of the hardest. I can say I'm from Peru, where I was born and where my family lives. Or I can say I'm from the United States, where my dad is from and where we go and visit for the 4th of July. or I can say that I'm from Guatemala, where I live and where I go to school. Whenever I say one of these questions, there's always stereotypes that follow my way. None of these answers ever feels complete. Each answer adds a new stereotype to who I am and where I live. When I say that I'm from Peru, people say and look at me, "Really? You don't look Peruvian? Are you really from there?" Or when I say I'm from the United States, people go and ask me, "Really? But you weren't born there, right? Or if I say I live in Guatemala, people say and say, "Isn't that like in Mexico or do you eat tacos every day?" For the longest time, these answers made me feel like I never really belonged anywhere. When people say when I say that I'm multicultural, people start assuming stuff. They start saying that it's glamorous, it's fun, it's like traveling every day. But honestly, it's really not like that. It's living in a different life in a different country where you don't know anyone with different rules to follow and different cultures to see. It's reality of living through stereotypes and feeling like you never truly belong. Even in my home countries, when I go to Peru, there's always someone saying, "Oh, you're too American or too ginga to actually feel like you belong." Or when I'm in the States, I feel too Latina to be considered American. I feels like I'm not enough of one culture to be part of the other. And yes, they were jokes. People joked about all of these stereotypes that followed me through all the different countries that I lived. But they actually started to hurt me inside. I started to fade into the background, not sure who I was or where I would fit in. Two years ago, I hit my bottom. At summer camp in the United States in the middle of Wisconsin, I was talking to some kids about where I was from and where I lived. Kids mocked me from saying that I was from Guatemala or that I live there. They said, "Where even is that? It sounds like it's from Africa." Or in Peru, when I told them I was from there, they were like, "Do you really eat hamsters? That's so gross." All of these different stereotypes caused me to actually feel what I they were saying. It started to make me feel like a less of a person and not wanting to fit in. For the rest of the day, there was a kid that called me Guatemalan Girl with intentional misprononunciation. I felt frustrated, tired, and invisible. And I really did get to that point where I asked myself, "Do I really belong anywhere?" One day, I was tired of evading the question or joking around it of where I was from. And I didn't shrink. I decided to expand. I told them about my foreign service lives, about living in international schools, being around kids with different cultures, traditions, and languages. I told them about how I grew up with different accents, stories, and music. And I realized I am not alone. There are many communities of kids like me all around the world, international schools that aim to protect it and aim to cause communities for everyone that's there. Even research proves it. The American Foreign Service Association says that multicultural kids have a higher risk of anxiety, depression, and PTSD. So, it's a problem that many kids with multicultural backgrounds face. 13,000 US foreign service officers are posted around the world. Even if half of them have kids, that's thousands of kids like me who live in multiple cultures. The National Library of Medicine says that one in seven US kids are equal to third culture kids. So, the problem isn't just in foreign service. It's also happening in the United States. Third culture kids are kids that grew up in a different background than their parents are from. So the struggle is real, but so is the communities. Stereotypes, they try to shrink us into boxes. But living between two cultures expands us. It expands our perspectives, empathy, and resilience. And what what and what was once my weakness became my greatest strength. So now when someone asks me, "Where are you from?" I don't freeze. I don't laugh it off. I don't shrink and I smile and I say I'm from everywhere and that's my strength. Being multicultural isn't about being divided. It's about being multiplied. Thank you.