“Third Culture Kid”, or “TCK”, is a term used to describe those that spend a portion of their childhood in one or more cultures different than that of their parents. They usually return to this “parent culture” after spending an extended amount of time abroad, and find themselves at odds with the place that is supposed to be their “home”. By being disconnected from both previous and current cultures, they then find themselves in a combination of all of them,...

I toured Tufts one day on a whim. However, as soon as I set foot on campus, I was sold. Every person I met was genuinely interesting and open and funny… and there was a huge statue of an elephant on the green. Reading the requirements for the International Relations major after the tour was like a dream come true: on top of the politics classes I was already excited about, I saw that eight semesters of a language were...

I went through the first nine years of my life happily avoiding exercise. However, after an embarrassing mile run in gym in the fourth grade, enough was enough. I was determined to be reborn as athlete. The next year, I went out with my dad to train a few weeks before the race-of-doom. Literal pushing from behind and many tears were involved, but I successfully cut a whole minute off my time. We repeated this ritual annually until seventh grade,...

Every reunion is the same: a little after midnight, I will sit up and talk with my cousins, giving and getting advice, debating big ideas, speculating about the future. There are fifteen of us in total: I am the second youngest, and the eldest is in his forties. Despite the difference in ages and residencies in several countries, we remain close. For my whole life, I have trusted them, watched them, and learned everything from how to make peach-polenta cake...

I love Tufts. From the moment I got in, I knew that I did not want to spend the next four years of my life anywhere else. What drew me most to this school was the people-- they were passionate...

I knew I wanted to go to school on the East Coast. I grew up in Ohio, and the endless monotony of grey skies and corn fields was too much for me to imagine seeing everyday for four more years. I wanted to find a balance-- big city with the outdoors not far away, a little...

Boston is my favorite city in the world. There are endless opportunities to learn, explore, be challenged, be surprised, and have fun. It's internationally significant but full of local charisma and camaraderie, urban and unique but not overwhelmingly massive. Better yet, the opportunities don't stop at the end of the T line-- the White Mountains are an hour north, Cape Cod is an hour South, and even New York City is...