not being on an airplane over 6 months is a problem

As many TCKs would know we travel, and we travel a lot. All around the world and to many of us "traveling" is home. It helps us to get to new places, see new things, be blessed by the opportunities that are shown to us.
Personally I travel several times a year and going to that airport every time just makes me so excited it means a new story, new people, new adventures. The problem for me is I have not been to an airplane for over 6 months! I'm already doing the countdown to my next airplane ride. Going to airports and going on airplanes are like nature and habits to us. They are the things that almost define us as TCKs. We travel, we move around, many of us forced to be chameleons.
Traveling is us and we travel. It is the things that we do and that many of us like myself love to do :)Keep Smiling You All
Sarah

Airports are a second home to you

Maybe its just me, but I find that any airport I go to all around the world there are those simple things that seem so familiar. In a life that is always changing, never the same. When all my friends have left or even if I leave the country I spent my entire life or the last few years of my life in, the airport comes as a comfort to me. Because each one is so familiar, homecoming to him. They are the waiting lounges, the sounds telling you which flight is about to go off, the tiled walls, the baggage claim.
Sometimes for myself I find even being at an airport more my home than my bedroom, although in confession I love a real bed rather than seats. But I always feel at home in airports, the people going and coming. The knowing that this place is assuring me that I am onto my next adventure... and I love adventures. Whether its visiting a friend, visiting an ancient artifact or going back to my passport country, the airport has the different things that make you feel loved. And not to mention the McDonalds at every airport ;) haha
But I guess I'm finding it hard to explain, but it just leaves you with that feeling, that being in airports and where the lead me to is how I want to be going forward. And I'm loving it ;)

Keep Smiling :D
Sarah Ann

...sleeping in airports and airplanes is second nature to you

So I just had an awesome summer vacation! And we traveled a lot, lots of car rides, airplane rides. I did an all nighter the night before I had to go onto an airplane.
But I was just realizing for myself I was able to fall asleep almost anywhere else almost faster than I can fall asleep than I do in my own bed... *shocked face*. Maybe its just cause I'm so tired but I think I've just adapted. TCK ADAPTION! WOOP WOOP!
Almost every car ride we had I thought okay, I'll read a book and then we arrive at our stop 3-4 hours later and my parents shake me to wake me up... haha... opps.
Also the day I just had an all nighter, I feel asleep when I was waiting at the airport for our check in since we were there an hour early, I guess I was just so comfortable at being at home at the airport that I just kinda fell asleep!
When I was really young I used to be the kid that would be so excited to go on the airplane that I could hardly sleep the night before and would be awake the entire airplane ride. I still get excited but I've adapted to being able to sleep, but I still love airplanes.
Well, if you have any awesome falling asleep stories and agree with me that falling asleep in airports, airplanes and car rides is a TCK thing write your stories in the comments bellow!

Keep Smiling :)
Sarah

...saying goodbye to your friends is saying goodbye to home

There is a saying home is where the heart is. I was just at an awesome camp for 4 days over the easter weekend with all my best friends and lots of TCKs. Saying good-bye to them was like saying good-bye to home. You build your home around friendships and people. When you have to leave its like even though your back in your own bed, your own home and school its still not home and you've left home. Sometimes it feels strange to be home and not feel at home and how when you were in a hotel that you felt SO at home! And the home was with your friends!
It also is with the people back in the countries we live in when someone leaves its like having your home leave you and even though you are still there life is so very different. 

...If you've watched the princess bride...

...Not once, not twice, not even five times.  You might be a TCK if the number of times you've seen the princess bride has reached double digits, and you can recite almost the whole script from memory.....not quite sure why this is though, does anyone have any insights?

...You seem to have a different view of how time passes

Sure, time is measured in seconds, minutes, hours and days, everyone knows that!  If you're measuring something really long you might even use years, haha, but even so, usually you don't count the time since you last saw your best friend in years, or you talk to them and see them at least once a week, sometimes every day.  As a TCK I see most of my best friends once every few years, and then I only get to spend a few days with them.  When your best friends live in three different countries and you might only have met them face to face two or three times, then you're probably a TCK.  We measure time in years, or at the least in months.  How many months till I see my family or till I can talk with a friend? Till I can walk into a house that has running water, till I can take a hot shower, till I can eat junk food (Ok, I don't actually look forward to that one).  Despite the fact that we see our friends only once every few years, and that every time we see them they've changed radically, this only helps to strengthen our relationships.  You know that it takes more than a few thousand miles of dessert or ocean to separate us, and we know that someone's always there for us.  I personally don't regret counting time past between reunions in years instead of days, and I'm looking forward to the next time I can get together with every one of my buddies scattered around the globe.

..."home" is something hard to find

For many TCKs we've moved a lot. If someone randomly comes up to me and says where is your home and where you are from? I would stop and stare. I wouldn't know exactly what to say. I'm from America by blood yet I don't feel american and don't really want to associate myself as an american. I grew up in two parts of this island called Bahrain but I don't feel like its home there either. Not to mention my hair and skin colour make me feel extra different.
For some tcks there will be moments of awkward pauses because one thing is true. We have no home on this earth. No matter where we go where we travel we may find senses of this is what home will be like but it never lasts long enough to enjoy it.
For me when I'm around my TCK friends and worship God that is when I feel the most at home, but those times are rare and I'm come to realize this world is not my home. Only heaven is and I'm just an individual made to make a small difference on a big world which I will travel but never settle.