🏠What it means to have grown up in temporary or institutional housing
Growing up in shelters, refugee camps, or institutional housing meant learning that you don't really belong anywhere—that your presence is temporary and others decide whether you get to stay or go.
You may have learned to make yourself as small and unproblematic as possible, hoping that good behavior might earn you a little more time before the next move. Your survival strategy became minimizing your needs, taking up minimal space, and reading the intentions of the powerful people who controlled your fate. You mastered the art of living without putting down roots, knowing that attachment to places or routines would only make leaving harder.
You may have developed incredible adaptability and consideration for others—rarely asking for anything and becoming skilled at fitting into any space without causing trouble. But now you might feel like a guest in your own life, waiting for someone to reclaim the space you occupy. Deep down, you may believe that permanence is for other people, not for someone like you who learned that rootlessness was your natural state.