Purple Up: Meet Alana a Third Culture Kid

Alana shares the highlights and the challenges related to being a third culture kid.   Bio: Alana has been a Military Kid since the day she was born on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, January 2010. 12 years later, Alana is and will continue to be a military kid until her dad decides to retire.  At 5 months old, Alana moved from Hawaii to California, where she lived for almost 3 1/2 years and due to different circumstances had to relocate to three different homes.  As a baby she was already experiencing daddy’s many absences due to his military training and long deployments, one being Afghanistan. A few days before her 4th Birthday she was getting ready to take a long flight to her new home in Okinawa, Japan, where she lived for about 3 years and learned to embrace Okinawa’s culture. After Okinawa, she moved to Iwakuni, Japan where she lived for 3 1/2 years and developed a love for Japanese food, and the mainland Japan culture. Today, Alana is living back in the place where all started, Oahu, Hawaii. She currently lives on Marine Corps Base Hawaii and has been for 1 1/2 years. She attends Mokapu elementary school as a 6th grader, also on base, where she interacts with many other military kids.    As a military kid, Alana has had many adventures and experiences but has also had to overcome the many challenges that come with it. ***