My Mother casually while putting on her makeup said “we are heading out this weekend for work, you can stay at the neighbours.” I looked at her, my eyes welled up. They were leaving me alone in our big house, in a country I had been calling home for a couple of years. We had …
Moving with kids is incredibly hard on the whole family, whether it is to another country or to a new state or province. Kids are not as resilient as you think, so make the transition as easy as you can. 1. Pack their room(s) last in the old place, and unpack their room first in …
When we had decided to go to a club to dance, I knew I had to ask for permission, after all, my parents needed to know where I was. As usual, I was pretty blunt, I wasn’t looking for trouble, I just wanted to dance. My Mother said “yes”. She knew I had gotten into …
I was outside of Spanish class, waiting patiently for my teacher. I looked around, I didn’t see any familiar faces, after all, I had only been there for 2 weeks, absolutely nothing looked familiar. Then I saw him, Patrick, he walked swiftly down the hall, I caught his gaze, I smiled, happy to see someone familiar. …
There have been many sayings and quotes that have been stuck in my head over the years, but non seem to ring truer than this one: Many times as a Diplomatic kid, I thought I was being rejected, whether it be from a situation, a play, moving or not making a sports team. It is …
Halloween in North America is the greatest day to a kid, not only do you get to dress up as anything you want, but you get candy to boot. It was a day that I sorely missed in every country we moved to, for most of us Diplomats, these simple holidays, or fun days, are …
Some of us who have grown up in this strange Diplomatic world have held onto ANGER. Diplomatic kids know that everyone is watching them, you might find this odd, but think about kids who are famous, they have everything documented by photos, Diplomatic kids have everything documented with hushed whispers and years of gossip. Hushed …
Yeah, that is my least favourite excuse parents or adults make. After every move, Diplomats will cryptically discuss their kids and the difficulties they have adjusting to their new surroundings, each parent will then nod and say “Don’t worry, kids are resilient.” As a kid who not only heard this line, but also bought into …
Over years of travel, there have been a blur of teachers, and only a handful standout. One in particular was an American geography teacher at an International school in Asia. His name, Mr. X (I changed his name for privacy reasons). One of the greatest things about International schools, no subject is off-limits, and most …
By grade 9, I had already lived in 4 different countries, I was a mixture of all cultures and yet the package I came in didn’t match those cultures. It was grade 9, and we were living in our home country. We were back to living in a tiny house, my parents drove their own …
