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SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW: MICHÈLE PHOENIX
SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW: MICHÈLE PHOENIX
This issue’s Spotlight TCK may have spent her childhood playing in a castle, but her life was not exactly a fairy tale. Nevertheless, she is able to draw deeply from her TCK life experiences in writing her own stories. We’re excited to introduce you to author, speaker, and TCK mentor Michèle Phoenix.
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Raised in France by a Canadian father and an American mother, Michèle has a big heart for TCKs. She taught for twenty years at Black Forest Academy in Germany before launching her own ministry advocating for third culture kids. She now travels globally to consult and teach on topics related to our unique tribe. Michèle loves good conversations, mischievous students, and Marvel movies. Enjoy our conversation, and we hope that you will also check out her novels!
Tell us a bit about your experience as a TCK.
I was born in France to a Canadian father and an American mother. They taught music at the European Bible Institute just north of Paris… which happened to be housed in a seventeenth century castle! So not only did I get to grow up in France, but I spent the better part of my time playing in the hallways and grounds of a place most people can only imagine.
There was a lot I loved about my French years. The language. The cultural quirks. The croissants! But there were also aspects of my childhood that were challenging because of the fatalism and educational style I was steeped in. It didn’t help that I was a naturally shy and sensitive child. Great for playing make-believe in a castle—not so great for overcoming the harsh realities of a culture that wasn’t “built” for people like me.
When did you discover you were a TCK?
When I was thirteen, I left the French educational system to move to Black Forest Academy (BFA) in Germany. The goal was to prepare me for college in the US, but there was so much more richness than that to my time there. Within days of setting foot on the campus in 1982, I knew that I’d found kindred souls. The French-American-Canadian child I was had never felt “normal”—not in the States, not in Canada, and not entirely in France. BFA became home to me. My heart-home. My belonginghome. My I’m-not-weird-home. My someoneactually-understands-me-home. If you cram enough identity-confused teenagers into a small
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