{"id":22288,"date":"2022-05-10T10:54:18","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T06:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/?post_type=articles&p=22288"},"modified":"2022-05-10T10:54:18","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T06:54:18","slug":"grazia-the-journey-editors-letter-beginning","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/articles\/grazia-the-journey-editors-letter-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"Editor’s Letter: Where Are You From?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Chelsea Heritage Trench Coat with a Cropped Back, Cotton Gabardine Choker Neck Piece with Holes, Baseball Cap, BURBERRY <\/strong>CREATIVE DIRECTION MARNE SCHWARTZ & DAN\u00c9 STOJANOVIC <\/strong>PHOTOGRAPHY PAUL MOREL<\/strong> FASHION DIRECTION ANNA CASTAN<\/strong> DIGITAL TECHNICIAN JULIEN DAUVILLIER<\/strong> HAIR JEAN LUC AMARIN<\/strong> MAKEUP VIRGINIE RASCLE<\/strong> MODEL AMANDINE POUILLY \/ APPEARANCE AGENCY<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cLet me get this straight…\u201d says, well, just about everyone when I answer the dreaded \u2018where are you from?\u2019 question.<\/p>\n

Seems straightforward, right? No heavy lifting required, it\u2019s not a trick question. Yet, for those whose sense of identity is a scramble thanks to an amalgamation of journeys your upbringing has taken you on, it becomes a little sweat-inducing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve lived in Dubai your entire life…but you\u2019re technically from the UK…even though you\u2019ve never actually lived in the UK?\u201d Indeed, I am.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll tell white lies and change my story as I go, like many other third-culture kids. I think, \u2018do I give you the simplified or the complex answer? What can you handle?\u2019 Sometimes I\u2019ll go for the quick response, an expression of fleeting convenience: \u201cEngland.\u201d Other times I\u2019ll tell the whole story: \u201cI moved to the UAE in 1993, however both my parents hail from the UK, but I empathetically call the Middle East home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coined by American sociologist Ruth Useem in the 1950s, the term \u201cthird-culture kid\u201d was given to individuals who have spent a significant portion of their formative years overseas and cannot denote where \u2018home\u2019 is. We relate to our shared \u2018third-culture\u2019 better than to our parents\u2019 culture (the first) or that of our host country (the second).<\/p>\n

I feel lucky to have grown up in Dubai, where being a global nomad was the norm. We share a beloved type of disorientation that home is everywhere and nowhere all at the same time.<\/p>\n

The past three decades of my life here have been shaped by my peers from nations far and wide, whose customs, languages and beliefs, are globe-spanning and diverse. I attended an international school that practised globalism but also bequeathed Arabic culture on us through its curricula and teaching staff. I had weekly Arabic lessons from the age of four; we frequented the Pearl Museum and<\/p>\n

The Heritage Village for our history trips; and we celebrated Eids and National Days in favour of Easter or bank holidays. At home, though, my parents instilled our own British culture in me.<\/p>\n

Yet as I\u2019ve grown older and more removed from the UK, I question my identity more and more. I feel especially removed from my first culture roots, but also know that I may never be granted citizenship in the Middle East. It\u2019s a cognitive dissonance and a complicated journey I rarely talk about, aware of the many privileges I\u2019ve enjoyed during my life in Dubai.<\/p>\n

My cross-cultural upbringing has been a sum of parts that have made a whole, and this issue unpacks many iterations of this experience through three powerful chapters: Beginning, Middle and End. The reason why we so desperately try to find the answer to \u2018who are you?\u2019 is because every human being has a need to belong.<\/p>\n

We have to have some place that we know and are known \u2013 for every part of who we are \u2013 all the strokes and stripes. The self is not singular but a compounding of many identities \u2013 and the idea of \u2018home\u2019 operates with the same sense of plurality, too. The beauty of a global nomad, whether from birth or not, is that home really doesn\u2019t have to be where the soil is, but where the soul is.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

MILLI MIDWOOD<\/strong>
\n@MILLIMIDWOOD
\nMILLI.MIDWOOD@ITP.COM<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This Editor’s Letter is published in the third edition of GRAZIA Middle East. Click here<\/strong><\/a> to discover more from THE JOURNEY.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29103,"featured_media":22491,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[260,35,3209,4254],"yoast_head":"\nGRAZIA THE JOURNEY Editor's Letter: Where Are You From?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"GRAZIA's Head of Young Women's Lifestyle shares her take on what 'the journey' means to her, focusing on the beginning, for GRAZIA: THE JOURNEY.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/articles\/grazia-the-journey-editors-letter-beginning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Editor's Letter: Where Are You From?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"GRAZIA's Head of Young Women's Lifestyle shares her 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