blame the parents

Somebody asked me today why in earth I am doing a course in English when I have not only lived in England and South Africa but have also gone to « international school » etc and thus can hardly say that I don’t know the language. The teacher overheard this conversation and started to ask a bit about our backgrounds. “You (he was talking to me) are obviously one of those who has had a complicated childhood, but are there others in this class?” His point was that often those who have been, as a child, dragged from one country to another end up themselves doing something similar.

It would have been nice to just leave it to that and have all the blame put on to my parents but as a reasonably honest person I had to correct him – in fact it is me who has created those complications. It was me who wanted to pack my things and go. He looked at me rather strangely but understood my point.

Now, then I can’t stop wondering what is the reason for me ending up like this. Why am I not, like my sensible siblings, in Finland, living in a nice flat, surrounded by people I have known for years? Maybe I could blame my parents – maybe I had a complicated childhood but just on a different scale. But that is a bit difficult to justify as I am the only one who ended up like this. Maybe I was taken on to an aeroplane too young and the change in air pressure affected my brain. (this didn't happen to my sister or my brother) Or maybe it was just me who had the luck of getting the gypsy gene.