16 Struggles International Kids have to face

1. You’ve got to travel

Traveling is literally the worst. When you have to do it all the time it becomes such a chore. One day you have to be in Brazil and then you have to travel to Hong Kong because you parents said so. It is such a drag. If you have never traveled then learn to appreciate your sedentary lifestyle. Traveling sucks!

2. Jetlag

Once you accept your fate, and you start traveling you will face Jetlag. You will eventually learn to dominate it, but it’s never fun. Jetlag is like cramming yourself in a washing machine and going through a full clean cycle. Not fun. And when you land and see your friends and they want to hang out but you have to tell them "Sorry I can't I have Jetlag." UGH.

3. Traveling is not easy

I really would just love staying at home, but unfortunately my birthright had different ideas. I have to travel a lot, and I have to constantly visit new places and experience new things. If you aren’t like me then you don’t understand the pain of having to read signs, and descriptions, and travel guides all just to peruse some artwork, or observe another ‘incredible vista.’

4. You know what is authentic

No more falling for those cheap snacks you thought were great when you first arrived. Since you’ve been here, there and nearly everywhere, you know what is authentic and what is not. You won't be satisfied with the sushi everyone eats, because you know what real sushi in the top restaurants in Kyoto taste like.

5. Your address is always changing

The paperwork. Can someone just do it all for me? Pleaaase? Amazon doesn’t allow the number of addresses I've input, and Google keeps auto-filling my address from two years ago. When will technology start keeping up?

6. You can’t help but learn some languages

Languages. They all sound different, work differently, and try saying things in other, more complicated ways. I just dream of being a normal privileged child who isn't international and doesn't have to understand that learning languages messes with your head! You don’t know what to speak where. It is like your brain is trapped in a maelstrom of different terminology. And then when you end up having to be in different places, traveling a lot, you just HAVE to learn a few words, and you hate it.

Also... dialects and accents... WTF? Is it traveller or traveler? Is it colonizing or colonising? Is it spelled globalisation or globalization? I don’t even know, but I can safely say I hate it.

7. You have to part with friends

This really sucks. You are in a country, spend several years, make friends, start to feel at home, and then you have to leave. To ANOTHER country, with OTHER people, and have a DIFFERENT life. If you still don’t understand the struggle then please keep reading. Speaking of friends...

8. You can run into your friends anywhere

You’ve got friends everywhere, from Bhutan to Burundi to Belize to Bulgaria. That is nice and all, and it would really stand out on your CV, but when you have to be on high alert EVERY TIME you are at an airport, this can really be an issue. That's right...when I am at an airport I want to get to my gate and relax, get my sweatpants on so I can settle in for the 10 hour flight... not reminisce about our elementary friends and their prenuptial babies. And also…

9. Time Zones (Skyping)

The only way you can keep in contact with your multi-national contacts is through Skype, but what a drag it is to calculate the time differences! Sometimes you have to stay up late to do it! Those lucky people who only have friends in one town really have it easy! And while we are on the topic of Time Zones… Ok, my birthday starts at 12 pm (0:00) and it ends at 12 pm (0:00). It can really get annoying when everyone starts wishing you a happy birthday before or after your birthday. If you have never experienced this, count yourself as lucky!

10. Facebook

Answering comments in all sorts of languages is just the tip of this exceptionally annoying iceberg. You can't help but embarrass your friends in all of the "Map your Facebook Friends" pictures. Your map just ends up looking like one big red dot. And the maps which asks you to "mark every country you have been in?" You can't help but smirk at your friend from Nauru when he has only visited 15 countries. That's because your whole map is red and so you have to go down in the comments and explain to people that its not a "Blank Map" but actually a map where EVERYTHING IS SELECTED!

11. You have to hide that you are international

Not everyone likes hearing that you are international, and you also don’t want to flaunt it around. Therefore you are exploding with information and experiences, but you can’t tell anyone about them! Its like your head is a volcano and society is a big boring fedora hat trying to make you fit in with the rest.

12. You struggle to identify with just one place

When I hear the dreaded question “Where are you from?” I cry...a lot. A torrent flows down my face because I can’t deal with the question any more. How can you explain to those lucky just French... or just Iranian... or just Bolivian people how much of a hassle having a dual, triple or quadruple identity is? I am always juggling different ideas in my head trying to come up with a reasonable answer but I have been to so many places that I can’t.

13. People think you are exotic

Ew, no. I am just like you, except I travel more. Just because I grew up in many different countries and I am a proud Third-Culture Kid does not mean you can ask me to take you along on my next trip! So how about you stop talking to me with deference just because I've been places you haven't. I would gladly switch lives with you; you try having these many passports! That's because...

14. PASSPORTS

You learn to HATE passports. They are a little book of suffering. Not only do they only have so many pages you can stamp (can’t they make them a bit thicker?) but they also get lost so easily. And when will they start making hardcover passports the norm? Mine is so smashed up it looks like it came out of the washing! And when the border control wants you to show your passport, which one do you show? Just one, all of them? At least going through the EU and US immigration line is always faster!

15. Currency

Don’t even get me started on this one. You’ve got to remember currency exchanges, and handle huge amounts of different looking money. My wallet is an accordion, chock full of different money, too bad I can’t play it on a street corner to earn some extra cash. Is a universal currency too much to ask? And every-time friends see the currency they just HAVE to see each one and admire it. Can we stop! Please :)

16. Profile Pics and Cover Photos

Finally we get to the elephant in the room. With so much travel and so many beautiful experiences who the hell know which amazing picture to pick as a profile picture? Riding an elephant in India? Eating a bug in Vietnam? Climbing Aconcagua in Argentina? On a beach in the Maldives? Hugging cute children in a small village in Zimbabwe? And the cover photo? So many beautiful landscape photos that you would like to change it everyday...but you don't...because you know people would stop liking them if you posted them too often! And I guess that is the moral of the story: too much of a good thing is not good! Irony?

That's all for this list! Could you relate to any of these points? Do you have your own stories of the annoying side effects of too much travel! Well share them with us at LUC News. Darn it! I am late for my flight!

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