Fitting In Is Overrated

Author, columnist and Harvard professor Arthur Brooks looks at happiness and “third-culture kids,” which are children “who grow up outside their parents’ home culture and, as a result, are influenced partially by their parents’ home culture and partially by the culture in which they live, but mostly relate to a “third culture” made up of fellow sojourners,” Brooks writes.  Think missionary and military kids. 

You’d think they’d experience loneliness and depression, but Brooks says “There is little evidence that being an outsider creates long-term problems for happiness or lowers your chance of success; on the contrary, people thrust between places and cultures tend to develop strength, flexibility, and resiliency.”

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