I'm American, but I've spent my life in the Middle East. This makes me a Third-Culture Kid (or TCK) - somebody who has been significantly influenced by two different cultures (in my case, American culture and Arab culture) and who then has developed her own personal third culture, which is a mixture of the others. Being a TCK definitely has its benefits - I have an easier time understanding other cultures, seeing how people can be different, fitting in in a new place, and so on. And that extra understanding of culture is great for writing! But being a TCK also means that I often feel like I don't truly belong anywhere or understand any culture fully. I'm not completely American, but I'm not completely Arab, either.

I think this sense of a lack of belonging really affects my worldbuilding. My imaginary world is the one world I completely understand. Everything that exists about it I know. Everything that makes those people tick, every detail of their lives - if it exists, I know it and it's part of me. I belong there, in a way.

Consequently, I often find myself slipping into worldbuilding when I don't understand something about the real world. (Most of my worldbuilding is done just in my head, you see - I'll be thinking about something and then I'll start to think, "So in most of Jacia people tend to think that way, but in Mitzduran people have other opinions..." and then I'll go off and develop something for a while before transitioning back into thinking about the real world.) For instance, recently I've been studying the relationship between whites and African Americans in the United States. This is something I have very little personal experience with and not much understanding of. Multiple times as I've been thinking about this subject, I've found myself slipping into thinking about relations between races in my world, developing imaginary relationships...not to help me understand race relations in the real world, but simply to take refuge in something I can understand...instead of wrestling with the reality of race relations in the US.

It disturbed me a little. I'm all for doing worldbuilding to help myself understand something in the real world, and I'm all for doing worldbuilding to give myself a sense of belonging, as long as I don't get too deeply enmeshed in unreality; but avoiding something I can't understand and instead developing something imaginary that I can understand...? That doesn't seem too healthy.

Anyways, have any of you had similar experiences? Do you also worldbuild to give yourself a sense of belonging? Do you feel like you fit in your world? What are good things about this sort of relationship with your creations, and what are dangers?

Well, I'd say programming Java has probably tilted you more than being exposed to multiple cultures.

I'm a lot older than you and thus naturally know the truth. At least that's what my characters tell me and I'm sticking with them. I'm not going to say "You're only a teen, of course you don't understand the world", no matter how many adults might have told you that already. That's not the truth.

Sadly, the truth is simple. The world is a fallen place and people make stupid decisions. People want to complicate things by trying to explain "why" without admitting to the truth. Or acknowledging Truth, for that matter.

Let's take your example of racial issues as it's a current topic. A difficult one that extends much further that your original position. Some people will have you believe the American Civil War was about the issue of slavery. It wasn't. The slavery issue came in two years after the war started, so unless you think people were killing each other for years before knowing why, you have to deal with other issues.

Some people will tell you whites have been enslaving blacks for years and whites should pay back. They ignore the Africans who put their own people into slavery and the whites that were enslaved by whites. They also seem to blissfully ignore modern slavery in the sex trade and the re-enslavement of the lower class by the political party that claims to be for the lower class.

Europeans fought themselves for a long time and then branched out to the Middle East, Africa, the Steppes, Asia, and America. Africans also started fighting at home, ranged out a bit, but seem content to currently keep the gunfire and slavery on their own continent. In fact, pretty much every culture fights within it's geographical borders, outside those borders if it can, and among its own peoples if it can't go anywhere else. Humans seem to generate cultures so we have reasons to fight each other.

World-build. Enjoy it if that's what God calls you to. If, at your age, you are questioning the way society works then you're years ahead of your peers. Some people go a lifetime without asking deep questions. Don't lose reality but contemplate it in a way that gives your writing depth. Maybe even show how better choices lead to a better world?

Besides, you're only a teen. Leave the stupid decisions to us adults who seem quite capable.

Yes. I have never belonged anywhere. I am not a TCK.. I had been in America most of my life, until I moved here. When it came to culture, there was no real difference at all to me. I was out of it in both countries.

I fit in most with foreign people, because they also do not belong. But they have a country behind them that is theirs, and I never really did.

I think it's not bad to make up things because you want to be able to understand real things better. I don't think it's bad to feel like you belong there, either.... You do, kindof. It's part of you, and you're part of it, and.. that's not really bad. At least, I hope so, because that is how it is with me, too.

But I don't think avoiding real life is good, if you keep on doing it and never work through the things you don't like and don't understand. That's not really good, no matter what it is you do to avoid real life... whether it's alcohol or cheap romances or irrational dogmatism or whatever. Or worldbuilding.

But you don't have to understand everything right now. You just don't, and you won't. So avoiding something for awhile, until you want to work through it... I may be wrong, but I think it's OK. At least... depending on how relevant the issue is to your life right now. I mean, I never really worked through the whole thing about.. death and stuff... for a long time. But when my friend died, I kindof had to. It wouldn't have been good for me to put it off, then, because... it just wouldn't have worked out all right if I had avoided it.