TED TALK
INNOVATION ACADEMY
After reading the book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, we prepared a ted-talk style presentation to share the things we've been carrying with us in our lives. For this project, I decided to talk about a topic that has been present in my life for many years, something that has become more important with each of the move, the meaning of "home."
Where are you from | Ariana Loor | TED Talks
Everybody take one second to think about their home…
“Where are you from?”
- Spain
“Where are you from?”
- Miami
You see how quickly people can answer? Well, when people ask me this question, I go blank for 20 seconds, the answer doesn’t come to my mind instantly since it is a unique one. I am not from one country, I am from many.
Let me tell you a little bit about myself for you to understand. During my whole life, I have been moving every two or three years, I’ve moved 9 times to 7 different countries. Every time I meet someone, which happens very often, the first thing they ask is “where are you from?” and after going blank for 20 seconds, my answer is Ecuador, US, Brazil, Honduras, Colombia, Puerto Rico and Peru. For me, all of these places are home. After hearing this answer, most people judge me based on the expectations they have on people like me, people that move a lot, they think my life is miserable or that it is depressing because I don’t have a home, because I lack stability and because I have to leave my friends behind. I have carried these expectations with me my whole life but recently I realized that these expectations don’t really apply to me. Instead of seeing it as a negative thing, I choose to see it as a positive one, let me tell you how.
People expect me to feel incomplete because I don’t have a home, and they are right in one aspect I don’t have one home I have many and I don’t feel incomplete at all. For many people, the definition of home is a house or a place where they’ve been for many years, but for me, home is not a material thing, it is all the experiences and memories I have built from different places but most importantly, from my family and my friends. I haven’t had the opportunity to live in one single place for my whole life, but the nomad life I’ve had has allowed me to be more open to changes and to new adventures. For example, I am at the stage of life where everything we think and talk about is college, and sometimes people ask me, “what are you doing after college? are you returning home?” Then I think to myself “how can someone go back to 7 different countries at the same time? But then I realised that I don’t need to go to one place, I want to keep exploring the world and live unforgettable experiences, and I’m sure with the preparation I’ve had for 17 years, I could build a home anywhere I go.
People also expect me to feel confused because I don’t have stability, they think my life is unbalanced because I am not able to maintain some routines like going to the same school or to the same dentist for my whole life. But I don’t think stability has to be physical, it is not how long you’ve been going to one place but how you manage continuity. You don’t need to be physically stable in one country or one city, you can create stability in your own lifestyle and make your environment stable as well. For example, you can go to different schools, but continue going. You can create routines within your family. In my case, we set up halloween and christmas decorations every year in my house, we also have family lunches on Saturdays, it doesn’t matter in what house we do it, it is part of our traditions and this is what creates our stability.
People also think that I have no friends because I leave them behind every time I move, but that is not my case because I like to maintain my relationships with my friends. I am so thankful to technology because it has allowed me to keep in touch with my friends all over the world, I can skype, snapchat or just text them, but we are always talking. For example, two years ago when I was in Paris, I was able to see a friend from Brazil that I hadn’t seen in 5 years. You can look at the difference in the pictures. Last year, when I lived in Puerto Rico, my best friend from Honduras went to visit me. And my cousin, that is more like a twin sister, has visited me in every single country I’ve lived in. I can tell you, each time I got to see someone from my past, it felt like time didn’t pass by, we would have an amazing time together. It is incredible how you can maintain good friendships over time and distance suddenly means nothing at all.
So, I have concluded that these expectations that I’ve been carrying don't really apply to me. I don’t like to see it as a negative or depressing thing, moving around has been the greatest experience I’ve had in my life, it has made me a very open minded person, an adaptable and strong one. It has showed me how life works, how it can change in one second and how we should all be prepared to face it with a positive attitude. I may not have a physical home, I may lack physical stability and I may have been separated from my friends, but this is what makes me the person I am today.
So maybe you're not a third culture kid like I am, but I'm sure you are more than your house or more than the things inside of it. You are a combination of all the experiences that you’ve had and everyone has lived different ones, we all have a different story. So what if we expanded our idea of home to include all of the experiences that we’ve had, the memories we carry, our friends and our family? Now, take another second to think about your home, do you still think of just one place?
Thank you.
Everybody take one second to think about their home…
“Where are you from?”
- Spain
“Where are you from?”
- Miami
You see how quickly people can answer? Well, when people ask me this question, I go blank for 20 seconds, the answer doesn’t come to my mind instantly since it is a unique one. I am not from one country, I am from many.
Let me tell you a little bit about myself for you to understand. During my whole life, I have been moving every two or three years, I’ve moved 9 times to 7 different countries. Every time I meet someone, which happens very often, the first thing they ask is “where are you from?” and after going blank for 20 seconds, my answer is Ecuador, US, Brazil, Honduras, Colombia, Puerto Rico and Peru. For me, all of these places are home. After hearing this answer, most people judge me based on the expectations they have on people like me, people that move a lot, they think my life is miserable or that it is depressing because I don’t have a home, because I lack stability and because I have to leave my friends behind. I have carried these expectations with me my whole life but recently I realized that these expectations don’t really apply to me. Instead of seeing it as a negative thing, I choose to see it as a positive one, let me tell you how.
People expect me to feel incomplete because I don’t have a home, and they are right in one aspect I don’t have one home I have many and I don’t feel incomplete at all. For many people, the definition of home is a house or a place where they’ve been for many years, but for me, home is not a material thing, it is all the experiences and memories I have built from different places but most importantly, from my family and my friends. I haven’t had the opportunity to live in one single place for my whole life, but the nomad life I’ve had has allowed me to be more open to changes and to new adventures. For example, I am at the stage of life where everything we think and talk about is college, and sometimes people ask me, “what are you doing after college? are you returning home?” Then I think to myself “how can someone go back to 7 different countries at the same time? But then I realised that I don’t need to go to one place, I want to keep exploring the world and live unforgettable experiences, and I’m sure with the preparation I’ve had for 17 years, I could build a home anywhere I go.
People also expect me to feel confused because I don’t have stability, they think my life is unbalanced because I am not able to maintain some routines like going to the same school or to the same dentist for my whole life. But I don’t think stability has to be physical, it is not how long you’ve been going to one place but how you manage continuity. You don’t need to be physically stable in one country or one city, you can create stability in your own lifestyle and make your environment stable as well. For example, you can go to different schools, but continue going. You can create routines within your family. In my case, we set up halloween and christmas decorations every year in my house, we also have family lunches on Saturdays, it doesn’t matter in what house we do it, it is part of our traditions and this is what creates our stability.
People also think that I have no friends because I leave them behind every time I move, but that is not my case because I like to maintain my relationships with my friends. I am so thankful to technology because it has allowed me to keep in touch with my friends all over the world, I can skype, snapchat or just text them, but we are always talking. For example, two years ago when I was in Paris, I was able to see a friend from Brazil that I hadn’t seen in 5 years. You can look at the difference in the pictures. Last year, when I lived in Puerto Rico, my best friend from Honduras went to visit me. And my cousin, that is more like a twin sister, has visited me in every single country I’ve lived in. I can tell you, each time I got to see someone from my past, it felt like time didn’t pass by, we would have an amazing time together. It is incredible how you can maintain good friendships over time and distance suddenly means nothing at all.
So, I have concluded that these expectations that I’ve been carrying don't really apply to me. I don’t like to see it as a negative or depressing thing, moving around has been the greatest experience I’ve had in my life, it has made me a very open minded person, an adaptable and strong one. It has showed me how life works, how it can change in one second and how we should all be prepared to face it with a positive attitude. I may not have a physical home, I may lack physical stability and I may have been separated from my friends, but this is what makes me the person I am today.
So maybe you're not a third culture kid like I am, but I'm sure you are more than your house or more than the things inside of it. You are a combination of all the experiences that you’ve had and everyone has lived different ones, we all have a different story. So what if we expanded our idea of home to include all of the experiences that we’ve had, the memories we carry, our friends and our family? Now, take another second to think about your home, do you still think of just one place?
Thank you.