Spotlighting Digital Nomading from a Buffer Teammate

Once I was requested to contribute to the Cultural Consciousness highlight, my preliminary thought was, which nation ought to I discuss?

Rising up I had an actual onerous time answering the query, the place are you from? Most frequently, the reply could be formed by the notion individuals had of me versus who I truly was.

After some thought, and with some steering from Katie, I assumed I ought to share with you all the truth of being a Third-Tradition Child (extra on that later) and why I consider that led me to turning into a full-time nomad.

My mom is Puerto Rican/Spanish, my father is Mexican, however I used to be born in Milan, Italy, a rustic not of my very own dad and mom’ language, tradition, and traditions, with an American passport.

I wasn’t really American as a result of I had by no means lived within the U.S. (I first moved there once I was 16), nor was I really Italian due to the color of my pores and skin, my father or mother’s unforgettable American/Spanish accent, and my approach of doing issues that didn’t fairly match the Italian requirements. Sadly, I couldn’t really be Latin American both as a result of the one actual Latin factor about me was my blood, plus I spoke Spanish with an Italian accent, so that might normally give it away fairly shortly.

So, who am I?

I’m – what many have coined – a third-culture child or world nomad. An individual that grew up feeling like I used to be from in all places and nowhere on the similar time. Once I was right here, I used to be not certainly one of them and once I was there, I wasn’t like these individuals both.

The definition for Third-Tradition Child/World Nomad is the next:

“A Third Culture Kid (TCK) is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents’ culture and outside their own passport country, usually marked by a residential status that has an expiration date.“

“[He/she] builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture may be assimilated into [his/her] life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar background.”

In the end, I really don’t want to throw in additional labels, however, understanding that I belonged to something, while some made me feel like I didn’t belong anywhere, helped me feel safe, rooted, and understood.

The whole idea of a Third-Culture Kid is that since I don’t belong to neither the culture of my parents, nor to the culture of the country I spent the majority of my developmental years in, nor to the country my passport belonged to, I created my own identity, aka a third culture.

That third culture would encompass a mix of foods, traditions, norms, rituals, and celebrations from various cultures around the world. Here are some personal examples:

Celebrating Christmas as a Third-Culture Kid

As a family, we’d travel to Puerto Rico almost every Christmas and celebrate it with my mom’s side of the family. On Christmas Eve, we’d have arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas), lechón asado (roasted pork), tostones (fried, smashed green plantains), and pasteles (tamale-like patties of green banana and meat). Accompanied by salsa music and probably some Cuba Libres.

The majority of my Italian friends (and in general most Italians) would head to their cottage in the mountains, gather at lunch on Christmas Day to eat Panettone, smoked salmon tartine, and ravioli in brodo, and then spend the rest of their time skiing. I always envied them growing up.

Moving to a new country as a Third-Culture Kid

When I was 16, I moved from Milan, Italy (the biggest northern Italian city) to Solvang, California (a small, sleepy town with Danish-style architecture and many wineries) with my family. The move was quite traumatizing and I experienced a real culture shock. I was enrolled into the high school to finish my last two years (junior and senior year). But I had a really difficult time assimilating with other students my age.

I felt that the sense of humour was different, that we didn’t share the same interests.  The days of sitting at a cafe with friends sipping a cappuccino, eating a cornetto, and talking about life for hours were long gone. I felt misplaced, boring, and misunderstood, and it took me a few years to finally start to understand and adapt.

Languages typically spoken as a Third-Culture Kid

I mainly spoke a very simple English at home with my parents, but went to Italian kindergarten, primary school, middle school, and high school, so I would speak Italian whenever my friends were around. Italy is known for their dialects, i.e. Milanese, Romano, Toscano, Napoletano. But I just spoke Italian with a Milanese/Northern Italian accent and didn’t even understand when Italians spoke in their dialect. The dialects are slowly disappearing, but still today they would be taught and passed on to the newer generations by their Italian grandparents.

Family gatherings as a Third-Culture Kid

Apart from my immediate family, I rarely saw my grandparents, cousins, and uncles/aunts. We’d travel during the summer to California to visit my dad’s side of the family (my grandparents had moved to California from Mexico in the 70’s as a part of the Bracero program to work on the railroads) and during the winter to Puerto Rico to visit my mom’s side of the family. All my grandparent’s spoke Spanish, so I would have a hard time communicating with them since I hadn’t really learned Spanish until later in my life.

Music, Movies, and Pop Culture as a Third-Culture Kid

While all my friends grew up listening to all the Italian classic music artists, like Mina, Vasco Rossi, Lucio Dalla, and Jovanotti, I grew up on American Classic Rock and Salsa.

I obviously feel very lucky to have grown up with that music, but when I was a kid I felt pretty left out at parties or in small gatherings because all my friends knew the lyrics to all the Italian songs, while I didn’t (and they’d often be surprised that I didn’t). Same went with the Italian movies and TV series. I just didn’t really know all the cultural references, sayings, and jokes because I didn’t grow up with them. And in a country like Italy, TV, music, and movies make an enormous part of the way that people communicate, interact, and joke.

How creating my own culture led me to becoming a nomad

I really can’t say I have a place I’d call home since I moved quite a few times in my life. The first time it hit me was about a year after I had moved to California from Italy. At the time, I would tell people that Milan, Italy was my home, but in going back to visit after I had moved to the U.S., I slowly became less Italian to the point that friends would tell me “wow you’ve changed so much.” That was a harsh actuality and the primary time I spotted I didn’t actually have a house or a spot I might comfortably be myself.

Once I take into consideration my upbringing and my possession of a number of cultural identities, it is sensible that I made a decision to pursue turning into a full-time nomad. As a result of, over time, I began to really feel comfy altering issues up on a regular basis and residing in other places.

I first determined to develop into a nomad in February of 2020. I used to be residing in San Francisco on the time and the corporate I used to be working for went bankrupt, closed down, and fired everybody. I used to be then confronted with the query of what to do subsequent. I used to be truly very sad in San Francisco. I felt caught and my life felt monotonous. Not having a job allowed me to consider the place and once I had been happiest prior to now.

The reply: I used to be happiest whereas touring and I truly loved repeatedly altering environments and pushing myself out of my consolation zone. So I made a decision to develop into a nomad.

I’m positive most of you’re acquainted with the time period, however for the sake of it, I’ll share it beneath:

“A Global Nomad is a person who is living a mobile and international lifestyle. Global nomads aim to live location-independently, seeking detachment from particular geographical locations and the idea of territorial belonging.”

However my need was to develop into a digital nomad, so to dwell a cell and worldwide life-style whereas incomes a residing working on-line. This led me to use solely to remote-friendly (and most significantly, totally distributed) firms.

In got here Buffer to make my goals come true. Buffer was on the high of my listing and I actually maintain having to pinch myself to make me understand how fortunate I’m to work for a corporation that totally helps this form of life-style. It was uncommon on the time, and I’ll ceaselessly be grateful to Joel and everybody else who not solely thought that this form of work model might be attainable, however that they did every thing they may to make sure that it might be simple to do.

There’s lots of thought that went into how I began this nomadic journey, however I’ll attempt to maintain it concise and solely discuss in regards to the issues that might be useful to others contemplating embarking on one. Right here’s how I approached beginning my nomadic life-style:

• I left my residence in San Francisco so I wouldn’t be tied to any month-to-month lease or utility payments and moved again dwelling with my dad and mom. I bought or donated all my furnishings, kitchen home equipment, and pointless garments/sneakers/and different gadgets and solely saved the necessities
• Whereas residing at dwelling, I began in search of a fully-remote job that might enable me to work from any time zone and nation
• I additionally began making an inventory of all of the nations I wished to go to and all of the issues I wished to be taught alongside the way in which; my listing was very longIn the meantime I began to perform a little research on devices and different gadgets that might make my life simpler as a nomad, like a financial institution pleasant to worldwide vacationers (Revolut, N26), worldwide medical health insurance, touring tech devices, and rather more.
• Then I had to decide on my first spot. The listing of nations had narrowed down because of covid-19, so I made a decision to stay to the EU.
• I then set two goals for myself: to be taught to surf and to be taught a brand new language.

The opposite issues I took into consideration had been the truth that I wished to go to a brand new nation and I wished my first nation to be one that might be accommodating to nomads (dependable web + simple to satisfy new individuals). And so I made a decision on Portugal.

The subsequent step was to ebook my aircraft ticket, organize my first spot, after which let myself belief the method. The scariest moments are the weeks earlier than taking your first flight, every thing in your physique is supplying you with indicators that you just shouldn’t go, and concern begins to settle in.

However do you know that there is no distinction, physiologically, between the sensations and signs of concern and pleasure? For me it’s useful to maintain this in thoughts and to begin to smile once I really feel fearful of not understanding the place my journey will find yourself. When you step on that first aircraft, all of it will get simpler.

My essential suggestions for beginning a nomadic life-style:

Journey mild and effectively. I remorse it once I convey an excessive amount of stuff, particularly as a result of I actually get pleasure from shopping for locally-made issues, so leaving a bit of additional house is all the time good.

Set private targets earlier than touring and use these to information the place you’d prefer to go. I set two targets for myself: to be taught/enhance a language and to be taught to surf. Therefore the rationale I picked Portugal as the primary nation to journey to and Central and South America afterwards.

As well as, I additionally set a purpose of studying one ebook for each nation I visited; and that one ebook needed to be in regards to the tradition and historical past of the nation I used to be visiting.

Don’t attempt to plan all of it out. I’ve observed that my finest experiences got here from the dearth of an itinerary. There’s solely a lot you’ll be able to analysis and the most effective recommendation comes from locals. I like to recommend reserving your first aircraft ticket (a technique) and your sleeping association. Then meet new individuals and ask round.

There’ll all the time be somebody that has already performed what you will have performed and has all the most effective suggestions.  Otherwise you’ll meet  an area that may advise you on the most effective, most genuine experiences, whether or not that be the restaurant they normally dine in or the bar they head to over the weekend with their pals.

As a digital nomad, dependable web is essential, so there are possible lots of locations you’ll be able to’t journey to. Earlier than reserving your subsequent sleeping preparations, ensure to ask about their web velocity, and in the event that they don’t have good web, just be sure you are near a co-working or cafe spot that has good web.

For instance, whereas touring in Central and South America, I all the time felt good if I knew there was a Selina within the neighbourhood or at the least within the metropolis. Selina is a hostel particularly made for digital nomads that additionally has a co-working house.

Fb Teams are probably the most helpful on-line communities I’ve discovered, sort into Fb “digital nomad” or “expat” and the place you’re visiting and also you’ll you should definitely discover a Fb Group only for you. They discuss actually about every thing, from rental automobile firms and restaurant suggestions to requests to satisfy up with different native digital nomads and recs for lessons to be taught just about something.

How lengthy must you keep in a single place? I wouldn’t suggest staying lower than 2 weeks, it’s solely after that second week that you just begin to get really feel for the spot and perceive whether or not you truly prefer it or not.

Go, expertise, work, dwell, journey, but in addition dedicate a while to volunteer and assist the local people not directly.

Listed here are some pictures I took whereas touring:

I additionally hope that this write-up has given you a glimpse into what life as a nomad seems to be like. I like residing on this approach and I’m an enormous promoter of this life-style. Thanks for taking the time to learn.

Observe Sophie on Twitter and be taught extra about Buffer’s tradition on our Open weblog.