Reflections

I remember the pride and contentment that came over me as I watched the cashier type busily away on the cash register, intermittently sneaking a smile at me. “Mom, Dad; when I grow up, I’m going to be a cashier”. This was my first proclamation of my future career intentions, announced at the ripe age of 5. I recall telling my mother how “cool” I thought it would be to meet a slew of random people at one time, and be able to keep all that money she stored in the cash register! To me, it was the most glamorous job: being popular and rich at the same time! What was not to like? However, my career aspirations didn’t just stay there. For the next 13 years, I would jump from wanting to be a teacher, doctor, writer, politician and lawyer.

Maybe I adopted an early aptitude to changing careers. But the person I am today was shaped by the different environments, and nomadic lifestyle I have experienced. I am, what sociologist, Ruth Hill Useem, so famously coined, a Third Culture Kid. This emerging global “subculture” is often characterized by children who constantly move countries, integrating their new, adopted “culture” to their birth culture. This results in a third “multi-culture.”

Growing up in 6 countries, I feel I have an element of each country in me. I am from neither my parent’s backgrounds: not fully Dutch, nor Iraqi. I am not Emirati, Swiss, Egyptian or Canadian. But I like to think that I am a bit of everything.

One symptom, however, which I think was greatly influenced by my circumstance, is my love for interacting with people. Moving around has perhaps shrunk the world in my eyes, and I find myself often seeing the similarities among people rather than the differences.

Despite many mocking me for my fickleness in choosing my career ambitions, I see a thread that links them together: the notion of communication as a vital and integral part of their success. A teacher will fill her student’s heads with new knowledge. A writer will inspire with their words. A doctor will cure with hands. A politician or lawyer will use rhetoric to persuade. All of these actions utilize our senses of listening, talking, writing, understanding and ultimately representing.

To me, communication is not only about a message, but rather about the delivery of the message. In my opinion, communication is the most important attribute of human behavior. It is what brings cultures together, as it has for me. It is what broadens our horizons. But in my opinion, communication is the antidote to all ignorance.