Third culture kid. A term used to define a person that grows up in a lifestyle with two different cultures. This term is one that Timothy (Tim) Smith knows extremely well.
It was just another Saturday night in my sorority house when I met Tim. I knew that we had four gentlemen visiting (or should I say escaping) from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. All fraternity men. All good looking. All ready to explode with the pressure of being a tech geek, except for Tim. He was cool, calm, and ready for an adventure.
Being the journalist that I am I questioned Tim immediately. Who was this person that stood out more than the messy room I was sitting in.
Timothy Smith. A twenty-year old who was born in America, but has spent most of his time in India.
“My mother is from England and my dad is from Texas. My dad went to school to do something with agriculture and my mom wanted to be a nurse. My mom went to India to practice and my dad went to India to help with farming.”
He said this story like this happens all the time with people. For me, my eyes were wide. This was amazing that people actually did something different with their life and didn’t just live in a bubble.
“My father ended up getting hurt and went to a local hospital in India and my mother cared for him. That is how they met.”
While his family has a strong passion for India, it is not their home.
“My home is in Virginia. As much as I love and wish India were my home, it’s not. India is where I spend time with my friends and where I attended high school.”
How does a kid who likes mechanical engineering, his fraternity Phi Sigma Kappa, and butterscotch pecan ice cream adjust to living in America and in India? This question is one I pondered for so long as he told me stories about seeing elephants, playing croquet, and eating exotic Thai food.
“Sometimes it’s hard to adjust. It’s not very easy mentally, but I’m aware of what to look for when I walked into different cultures. I know what is acceptable and what is not. It was really hard when I was in tenth grade. I came back from India to study in Kentucky. I had a hard time getting use to how America worked again.”
“I think it’s easier for me to adjust verses other people because of the way I was brought up. I’m not biased. I was raised Christian, but I taught to be excepting of other religions and cultures. My parents wanted me to make my own decisions.”
With so many valuable experiences, it is hard for an experienced person just to pick one. I also expected his answer to be something about climbing some crazy mountain or jumping off some cliff. It just seemed like his lifestyle. I was wrong.
“ There was this one time in ninth grade I took a mountaineering course. I didn’t know at the time, it was a basically an army boot camp. We had to get up at 4am to run and do push-ups. It was one of the experiences of my life. Halfway through I was almost going to leave and quit, but the principal of the school talked to me and said that I was going to get through it. And I did. I realized when something hard does pass it will feel that much better. It was life changing.”
It was hard to sit next to a person that has experienced so much in only twenty years. I tried to hold my mouth close, but it became too much of a chore.
“I think it is hard for my friends to relate to me just as hard as it is for me to relate to them. Not a very big roadblock. I feel when I’m telling stories I have to clarify more rather than when my friends tell stories. Maybe I just don’t tell stories that well.”
