Amina.

I first heard the word when I was 10 years old and living in Karamoja, Uganda. In the Karimojong language, amina is the word for love. In the Karimojong dictionary, it is defined as “to love, prefer, hold dear”. I love this definition of amina because to me it seems to go beyond the conventional, blanket definition of love. Amina means to prefer something. To choose it. And then after you choose it, to hold it near and dear to your heart. 

That is how I feel about TCKs. 

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t always feel that way about my own TCK identity. Being a TCK is complicated. Sometimes it feels like a superpower (to be able to look through things through a multicultural, multifaceted lens, to be able to make friends with anyone no matter how different they are from you, to be able to find the best place to fall asleep in an airport). But sometimes it can feel like a burden. Like a weight or barrier in life that will always be with you, making it hard to find belonging, to be satisfied with living in one place, or making long term friendships. It’s a burden that TCKs don’t get to choose or reject, it’s just handed to us without the option of putting it down and walking away. Once you’ve got it, you’re stuck with it. 

You can try to adapt to it in different ways. You can try to ignore it. You can hide it from other people and pretend to be monocultural. Or you can embrace it. You can choose it. You can prefer it. You can love it. 

It took me a long time to embrace this part of my identity. Embracing it means knowing that there is something about me that almost everyone else I interact with will never understand. But it also means that I can come to peace with myself and live in accordance with my own values, passions, and identity. Once I chose to embrace my TCK identity, I began to live and work and pursue meaning in life that aligns with myself instead of fighting against and suppressing myself.

This is what I want for you too. If you feel like you are going through things that no one understands because of the TCK part of your life, I get it. I’ve been there. Even if your TCK identity is not really the main thing you are struggling with right now, but it’s an important lens through which to consider other aspects of your identity and experiences that you are struggling with, I get that too! I hold so much hope and confidence for you, that you can come to a place of not just self-acceptance, but loving, preferring, holding yourself dear. Amina can be yours too, if you want it.

Did you know that Karimojong is not the only language that amina can be found in? When doing my research about this name, I learned that amina is also a word and a name in other languages such as Arabic, Hindi and Urdu. Even though I chose the Karimojong meaning of the word to represent this practice, I love that amina means something special in different languages around the world. What a beautiful example of the benefits of looking at everything through a multicultural lens!