Finding a New Language for My Identity

I was 24, walking alone through the warm streets of Singapore, when a wave of confusion hit me - again. A melancholic song echoed in my earbuds as I stared at the skyline, wondering why I still felt so lost. I had a degree, a job, a stable income, and yet… no sense of rootedness.

That moment became a quiet turning point. Not because I figured everything out - but because I finally realized something didn’t quite fit. I had been raised with the mindset of being multicultural. I embraced it, even celebrated it. But the way society talked about identity - especially for people like me - felt flat. Simplified. One-dimensional.

Mainstream conversations about navigating identity as a young adult didn’t reflect my reality. I wasn’t just balancing cultures - I was built by them. And yet, being “multicultural” didn’t fully explain why I sometimes felt fragmented or why I struggled to locate a single sense of home.

Then I discovered the term cross-cultural.

Coined by Ruth E. Van Reken and David C. Pollock, cross-cultural describes people who grow up among two or more cultural environments during their formative years. It’s not just about exposure - it’s about how deeply that blend shapes your identity, values, and worldview. It clicked immediately. This was me. And for the first time, my experience had a name.

🛠 Practical Insight:

If your sense of self doesn’t match society’s labels, it’s not because you’re unclear—it may be because the language we use isn’t expansive enough. Explore the term cross-cultural. You might find it describes you better than anything you’ve heard before.

You can also grab my free guide here, and use my top 5 strategies to start bridging your different cultural identities!