You know you are a World Racer when:
~When passing out on a dusty concrete floor in Peru, you use your chaos as a pillow (Chaco’s are a heavy duty strappy sandal that all WR seem to have)
~You save straws, salt and sugar packets from coffee shops for later. –You never know when you’ll be making coffee on a sandy roof and would do anything to add a little sweetness to your not by preference black coffee.
~The deciding factor of buying something is “will this fit in my pack though?”
~Writing blog posts (such as this one) and reading your bible is done by candlelight.
~Being walked in on while pooping isn’t awkward anymore.
~The sniff test for your clothes is no longer an accurate reference- Even if it looks dirty, sometimes that last shirt and socks you have been wearing for 3 days is all you got.
~You have more than 2 currencies in your wallet at once and sometimes you pay with the wrong one.
~You catch yourself singing songs from your children’s ministry randomly with your teammates in public. –“Days of the Week” from our English classes in Peru was sung on the subway in NYC.
~You forget what you look like from not seeing your reflection for weeks at a time
~You can literally fall asleep any where you drop. -After 4 days of travel from Bolivia to India, you were lucky if you made it to your room before collapsing on the tile and sleeping alllllll day.
~Your legs are never tanned above your knees
~The thought of driving to the store by yourself back in the day makes you mini panic. “You mean people live life without a buddy system?!”
~Your mind set begins to change and you start saying things that you never would have back home. –“I really think that you should continue to grow out your hair for that man bun.”
~When hot water runs through the taps it makes you want to gag.
~You can tell what time of day it is by the “sounds of the city.” –in India Mosquitos come out at 6pm, Food usually rolls in around 8-8:30pm, every dog in the village starts howling at the moon together at 10pm
~You get your languages mixed up. -Living in South America for 3 months then going to India, everyone was being told hello, thank you and yes in Spanish.
~You can find anywhere to hang your hammock.
~You become strangely surprised at the things you crave from home. -All I want is to bite into a massive block of cheese.
~Your standard of a clean/ nice bathroom drastically changes- teaching VBS at a farm church we had a squatty, a sheet of broken ply wood for the door and if your foot slipped you would rather amputate it than wash it.
~You’ve peed your pants at least once… -no comment
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As a World Racer you become the master of change and surprises but as the scenery around you changes, so do you. You look back at pictures from home and are mind boggled that that was the way you once lived, to the point that your aren’t sure if that was actually you. The thought of owning a vehicle, having a wardrobe, feeling clean after a shower and not having to worry about the power cutting out multiple times a day are completely foreign.
Even though life itself is a weird one on the Race, it is the coolest thing I have ever experienced. You start to see the best and worst parts of your self. You are submerged into places and situations that you used to avoid like the plague. But then you come out having tapped into a whole new part of your heart that had never been opened up. Before the Race when I thought about senior homes I though diapers and moth balls- ewe. One day my team and I were literally dropped of at a senior home and told to mingle and pray for the seniors. I wanted to slap our contact then run as far away from that home as possible. After standing at the edges of beds, looking into the patient’s eyes, quieting myself and holding their hands, God began to reveal something so beautiful to me. He showed me the way that He still sees his children, no matter the age. This was a lesson that I never allowed myself to explore because I was once too afraid.
The World Race is about as predictable as the northern lights. You never know what to expect from them and it changes before your eyes. But you can never walk away without feeling impacted by its glory.
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