Traci Martin

[Samurai Shiba @SamuraiShibaJP]

My wife has taught high school in Tokyo for twenty years.

Every year, a few of her students spend a year living with a family in America. When they come home, she asks each of them one question.

"What do you miss?"

She expects hamburgers.

She almost never gets hamburgers.

And these aren't old stories. Most of these kids came home in the last two years.

"Every time I left the house, my host mom said, 'Text me when you get there.' In Japan, nobody needs to know where I am. In Ohio, somebody always did." (Mina, 17, Ohio)

"If you walk toward a door, an American will hold it open. Even if you are very far away. So you have to run. I ran to so many doors." (Itsuki, 16, Georgia)

"My host brother screamed on the floor of a grocery store. A stranger walked by and said to my host mom, 'You're doing great, Mama.' She almost cried. I didn't know strangers were allowed to say that." (Aoi, 17, Texas)

"We went away for the weekend and left our trash can at the curb. When we got back, it was by the garage. Nobody said who. My host dad said if it had been there one more day, the neighbor would have knocked." (Haruto, 16, Minnesota)

"A car got stuck in the snow in front of our house. Four men came out of four houses. Nobody called them. They pushed, the car drove away, and they went back inside without saying their names." (Ren, 17, Michigan)

"Every American has jumper cables. Maybe half of them know which clip goes where. The other half help anyway." (Shin, 16, Montana)

"In July, my host family put a cooler on the porch. Cold water, snacks, and a sign: 'For our delivery drivers. Thank you!' I asked if they knew the drivers. They said no." (Nanami, 16, Arizona)

"Downtown, there are banners on the lampposts. Photos of soldiers from the town. Some old, some very young. My host grandpa walked me down the street and told me every name." (Yuna, 16, Iowa)

"I got a C-plus on my first test. My host dad said, 'I'm proud of you,' and put it on the fridge. In Japan, nobody is proud of a C-plus." (Takeru, 17, Pennsylvania)

Then the quietest girl in the class raised her hand.

Sora. Seventeen. Missouri.

"Nobody asks me 'home safe?' anymore," she said.

She was wrong.

In September, there was a typhoon warning for Tokyo. At 2 a.m., Sora's phone lit up.

It was her host mom. In Missouri. Watching the weather in a country she had never been to.

"Saw the storm. You home safe?"

Sora told my wife she cried for a long time. Then she typed the answer she had typed a hundred times, from football games and friends' driveways.

"Home safe."

Her host mom wrote back one line.

"Good. That's all I needed."

My wife has asked that question for twenty years. Not one kid has ever said they missed how big America is.

They miss how America says goodbye. And how it checks that you got home.

So, America. You think you've lost something.

You haven't. It's on a porch in Arizona. It's pushing a car in Michigan. It's awake at 2 a.m. in Missouri, watching our weather.

You don't remember doing any of it.

A kid in Tokyo will never forget.

[Traci Martin @tracimartin04]

@wildforcongress @HaleyforMI Wow. Good thing she found out you were never a true friend after all... only a political hack who would turn on her once she left the cult. I hope your children fair better than you

[Traci Martin @tracimartin04]

@SandipSharmaEng Fake, set up

[Traci Martin @tracimartin04]

@lightnerpatriot Those poor children

[Traci Martin @tracimartin04]

@springsteen What drugs did you take today? Hope you recover before it's too late

[Traci Martin @tracimartin04]

@AbdulElSayed Reaffirms my vote for RED. Sooooo you're the party of mu#de$... For all Americans... how quickly they forget🤦‍♀️After all it's in your quran

[Traci Martin @tracimartin04]

@ewarren @AbdulElSayed You have got to be freaking kidding me. Hope? How about Trojan Horse? Not even that... he hates our country and her people and he'll turn on you too! Ahhhhh such foolish minds

[Traci Martin @tracimartin04]

@FoxNews He's a freaking traitor. Destroyed our country

[Traci Martin @tracimartin04]

@BarackObama You sicko. You destroyed our country

[Traci Martin @tracimartin04]

@abhiraj94158 That's so fake

[Traci Martin @tracimartin04]

@alluringmedia He's disgusting and a Satan worshiper

[Traci Martin @tracimartin04]

@TruthLeaksX Why doesn't her face move... is she wearing a mask? Is that really her or someone else?

[Polk County Sheriff 🚔 Grady Judd @PolkCoSheriff]

It doesn't get much more Polk County than this... #MorningBriefing #PolkSheriff #GradyJudd

[TRUMP TV Report @TRUMP_TV_News]

🚨 MUST WATCH: THE WHITE HOUSE JUST DROPPED ITS NEW TRUMP TV VIDEO 📺

"MAKING. AMERICA. GREAT. AGAIN."

Watch till the end. This one gives you chills 🇺🇸

What does this say about the next 2 years? 🤔

🎥 @WhiteHouse

[Traci Martin @tracimartin04]

@AbdulElSayed By Muslims, you mean. That's your people. We don't want you or your fake religion.

[Traci Martin @tracimartin04]

@LionelMedia Bull hockey. She should go to jail for attempted murder. Bipolar is no excuse.

[Traci Martin @tracimartin04]

@Ilhan I think your time is over deary, sit back and learn a thing or two.

[American Patriot Jacqui 🇺🇸 @Cline3Jacqui]

@BarackObama @AbdulElSayed @JocelynBenson

[Americaforever @onetexgal9]

@BarackObama @AbdulElSayed @JocelynBenson Oh yes, he is the pillar of Truth.

[Ava- I Love My USA! 🇺🇸 @WEdwarda]

@BarackObama @AbdulElSayed @JocelynBenson Yep.