by Jeff Thomas, International Man:
I was fortunate to have grown up multinationally to some extent. Between the ages of about eight to fourteen, I had a second home that I liked a whole lot better than my primary home. This instilled in me a tendency to not identify fully with either country.
This, of course, is not the norm. We’re told to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, or sing “God Save the Queen” or whatever other tedious repetitious act, in order to cement a sense of belonging into our brains. We’re meant to develop the belief that we have one home for life and that’s it. Little wonder, then, that so many people have such a hard time becoming independent thinkers and breaking away later in life.