Editor’s note: This is the second in a series about life as a Seventh-day Adventist missionary child. Read the first story here.
Travel is exciting for most missionary kids.
Some of us who’ve been on planes more times than we can count still get excited to fly. I think that secretly we are all pilot-wanna-bes.
As a missionary kid, you may find that some of these things are true for you, too.
You may be a missionary kid if:
1. You had a passport long before you had a driver’s license.
2. You flew before you walked.
3. You know how to pack a suitcase at 49.9 pounds or 69.9 pounds.
But if you accidentally go over you think nothing of pulling out your one heavy sweater and wearing it in 105 Fahrenheit degree weather as you climb the stairs to the plane.
4. You think it's normal to always have to walk out on the tarmac and climb stairs to board the airplane.
5. As an adult, you kick yourself for the millionth time for not following through on countless promises to yourself to teach the airlines how to cook vegetarian meals.
Pickled artichoke, cabbage, and one lone dried tomato on bun do not constitute a sandwich, my good airline. Neither do salt-less white noodles with occasional microscopic bits of tomato count as a wonderful pasta dish. Zucchini tastes much better cooked than just partially wilted, but I'm not sure it ever belongs as sandwich filling. Maybe things would improve if I said I was on a raw diet or a fruit diet or a cookies and ice cream diet instead of just being vegetarian.
However, I must say that every once in a while I am pleasantly surprised by my acceptable vegetarian airplane meal. It must be that some missionary childhood friend actually did follow up with that airline.
Karen Taylor Glassford was born to U.S. missionary parents in Puerto Rico and grew up in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Honduras. As an adult she has lived in South Korea and Guatemala and gone on many short-term mission trips, most recently to Rwanda in May 2016. She currently works at Institute of World Mission at the General Conference.
Read also: You May Be a Missionary Kid If … Food keeps you talking for hours.
