My New Life

The other day in a FB forum, someone said I was anti-American and I have to be honest it really hurt me. I have been thinking about it over the last few days and I am not anti-American besides what that person thinks or says.

I have lived here for over 6 years and plan to live here for probably the rest of my life. It doesn't mean I love my country less and I will always be an American.

The forum is supposed to provide information to Americans stationed over here with the USAF.  Sometimes people have a bit of a moan about the way things are in the UK. Some of it I agree with and some I think perhaps we should challenge the views we have and adapt, even if it is only for the 2-4 years that they are here. I can see why some people don't like being stationed here when they moan instead of being more flexible. There might be a better way of doing things. The Americans stationed here are in a perfect position of learning new values and adding them to their way of life.

Truth of the matter for me is I have to make it work. Could you imagine complaining about everything and not adapting the way I operate? I would be miserable for the rest of my life. Instead I have to embrace it, there is a lot of things that go on that I am not fond of but the British have been doing things their way for a long time and they are not going to change on my account.

Having been in the USAF for 10 years and being on-call most of my career, I cherish my weekends off. I briefly worked in a shop in Cambridge and hated working the weekends, Saturdays were nice because it was always busy but Sundays I often thought it wasn't worth being open because people were just window shopping and it was hard to meet our target when people weren't buying. I like that the hours are limited on Sundays (6 hours is plenty of time to do the things you need to) because I don't think that it is necessary for things to be open 24/7. Does that make me anti-American? Being that America is one of the most religious developed countries and Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, I don't think so. I would prefer people to spend time with their families (the people in the shop are people too). When I am down at the sailing club, it makes me smile seeing families out walking along the River Cam, spending time together- it’s the same as window shopping just no windows.

Since being stationed here in 2006, I have been taking a trip down a healthier way of living. In 2008, I found out that I have a milk/soya allergy. I had to stop buying processed foods and start cooking from scratch. Since then I have dropped 45 pounds and have maintained my weight since separating in 2009. I have always been a big fan of Hamburger Helper, Kraft and everything else but now I am unable to eat any of the American favourite foods and it has really brought to my attention how much 'stuff' is put in our foods. I wasn't a great cook but this has made a better one. I kind of like the fact that there is a lack of drive thru fast food joints here because it puts off the accessibility of unhealthy foods. I want America not be pictured as the fattest country in the developed world, I want Americans to live long healthy lives, and I am tired of seeing obese Americans being visited by the overweight Britains on shows like 'Supersize Vs. Superskinny' on Channel 4, this is not how I like my country to be viewed. Does that make me anti-American? I don't think so, I am trying to get people to change their ways and live healthier and better lives. I wish that the food choices on-base had more healthy choices to help reinforce the USAF's policy that people should be fit and healthy. There are some great women in the Fb workout groups that inspire me and it is great to see the support that they give one another and how they are making a difference with each other.

It is very expensive to live in England, so over the years I have had to take a look at my spending because being out of the military was going to be an adjustment. My housing and food wasn't going to be paid for when I separated. The two years before I got out, I hunkered down and paid off all my credit cards (something I struggled to do over my AF career- once I got it down, somehow it would always go back up) and my car loan. I have lived debt free since then, even when I was out of work for 3 months. Living without debt is so nice, I wonder why I didn't do this a long time ago. There is so much that can be done at little or no cost and true value is the quality of the time not the things we are buying. I started to look at being frugal and self sufficient and stumbled upon The Story of Stuff which is created by an American, Anne Lennard. I was horrified. 99% of what we as Americans buy today will be in the landfill in 6 months?!?!? That sounded like a waste of money not to mention the affect on the environment. I have readdressed the way that I shop and how I view my ‘things’. As many Americans have pointed out there is a lack of storage in the British houses and therefore I don’t have any room for more stuff. Does this sound anti-American? I don’t think so, I don't want my country to be viewed as the country who over spends, who are ruled by the things they have and one of the countries that contributed to the recession we are experiencing today.

I love that the British make recycling so accessible; I think as one of the most influential countries in the world, America should be leading the charge in recycling and saving the environment. It would create jobs as well. Here I throw everything in my green bin that is recyclable and it is collected every other week. I have lived in Colorado, North Dakota and Texas and there was never a system like this in place. It was never this easy to recycle. In fact, when my family came over for my wedding, I showed them how I recycle and now even though they do not have the facilities like I do, they happily pack up their recyclables and take them to the recycling stations near them. I even began a forum for people stationed here so that they could sell or giveaway the things that they didn't want after seeing the piles of perfectly good items at a local recycling facility near the bases. To imagine the affect that those items are having in the local area when most people are only here for 2-4 years is unbelievable. I am happy to say that there are more than 2,000 members and have helped prevent those items from going in the local landfill. Is that anti-American? No I have helped improve the perception of Americans in the local area because, those items are not in the landfill and then the locals do not see Americans as being wasteful. Also I hope that they will take away the attitude of being greener with them and spread the word at their next assignments.

So I wouldn't say I am anti-American but I would like us as a nation, take a good look at what we think is important. I think that we could learn a lot about how we treat our time, money, the environment, our families and more importantly ourselves.

Remember for you this is only temporary but for me this is American to Britain.