By Sage Honigstein
Patch Middle School, 6th Grade
Whenever I hear about people who can stay in one place for more than three years, it sounds weird. I’m a 12 year old, and I have never knew where I was going to live for more than 3 years. My dad’s a diplomat, so what’s it like to be me? It’s awesome. Most of the children my age have no idea what a diplomat is, so I will tell you. They are the people whose job is to go out and help others. To help other countries, and help give people visas. So why am I living here, on a military base if I’m in the state department? Right now, my dad is a political advisor. His job is to help the military get an idea of what’s going on in the government. It’s all about diplomacy!
Now, I just found out that my dad would go to Washington for 1 year for training, than Georgia for three years. The experience of knowing where I’ll be in four years was mind blowing! It just feels weird. Now, I know that it’s not required to stay in one place for more than three years in the department of defense, so they might not move as much as department of state children, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t still move more than the average child!
You see the thing about me is that I Want to make a difference in life. I want to change the world for the better. I am surrounded by people who do that every day, it’s their job! I’m thinking, why can’t I do better? So I am trying to do my best in school, get an education, finish my homework, one step at a time. I can do it. We can do it.
We are a democracy, a rainbow of people from around the world, here at one place, because the world can be big. I have been to 31 countries, each one could probably be the whole world to a person. Yet that isn’t even a fifth of all the countries out there! But the matter where you get posted, you can always find a home there, because that is what military related children do.
Sometimes moving is hard, and you feel like the next place won’t be as nice as where you are, but in my experience, I feel like each place can’t compare to the last. They are all amazing! The one thing everyone in this school may have in common is that they support their parents or people who raise them. We are there for them. We care for them. They are out there, making a difference, and we are right beside them, whether it’s a stay at home parent to a military captain! We are there for them, because we are the military child, and related to military child!
Editor’s note: Essays and drawings from students across the Stuttgart military community are submitted to the School Liaison Office each March and published throughout the month of April on The Citizen, at the Panzer Main Exchange and read aloud on AFN Stuttgart radio to celebrate our military children in Stuttgart.