In Search of Belonging is a three-part series that explores the identity of someone with a multicultural upbringing. Three books signify three cultures and experiences, the culture of my background, environment, and current space. This piece explores the experience of growing up abroad and how it impacts one’s identity and sense of belonging through real scans of past mementos, more forms of mixed media, and a personal narrative. Relocating every few years growing up, we were used to losing friends and gaining new ones, starting at a new school alone, and never feeling truly at home. Having very few constants in our lives, we are left with searching for somewhere we can call home.
The lost sense of belonging is a familiar feeling to many with this upbringing—the feeling of being a foreigner in your own home, the constant search for belonging, and the uncertainty that lies within you and your future. However, we soon find a new identity emerging within one another. We find “home” in people, not in places. I aim to let people who feel a similar sense of loss in belonging to experience a fragment of home through these pieces.