Larger Frame of Reference

From Jan Wertz:

Dad was in the Air Force, so I grew up on a series of airbases: Ellsworth, Offutt, and High Wycombe Airstation in England. From England, Dad was transferred to Memphis Tennessee to teach ROTC at the local university, which is how I went to high school with a group of kids who had known each other most of their lives. Talk about culture shock! Most of them had never been out of the area, never mind out of the country. Which definitely made me the outsider.

Since that time I have been aware that I do not have the same frame of reference as the people around me. Mine is much wider and allows more variations in point of view. Feeling ‘different’ from those around me, I found some of the ‘bits’ of myself when I returned to Britain as a tourist. I tend to walk fast, something most women in the U.S. don’t do. I had attributed it to keeping up with my 6ft father. However, while I was visiting England, I discovered that I was no longer among the faster walkers… Actually, I was about average, and in danger of getting run over if I wasn’t careful. I have also discovered that if I’m talking to someone from Britain, I tend to slip into British English- accent and all!

Being an Air Force Brat means I can make myself at home anywhere, yet have no one place to call home. No friends, or family except for my parents, who I have known all my life. I have a larger frame of reference–and enjoy it. I can’t say it is entirely an unmixed blessing, but I wouldn’t trade being a Military Brat for growing up a rooted-in-one-place person.