My Shameful Secret

Well, that title is total clickbait, but seriously, I’m about to admit something that few people know about me.  But I take comfort in the fact that I’m not alone in this habit, and I believe that saying it out loud (of sorts) will help cure me…

My name is Ariel, and I’m a HOARDER. 

Whew, it feels better to get it out in the open, and maybe I can even begin to get past it.  But then again, maybe not.  

All missionaries are hoarders to some extent. Not the serious hoarders of reality television, mind you.  We don’t live in homes with magazines stacked sky high or anything so dramatic.  In fact, in other times, we might better be described as “pack rats” but well, I think I prefer the term “hoarder” to vermin. Either way, I guarantee you every expat or global worker I know has a stash of hidden products, from the USA--or even other foreign travels.  You live your life far from America and Reese’s cups, and see what happens to you! With shipping prices being outrageous and the visitors from home so few and far between, we attach prime value to those special objects we can ONLY get from far-off places. So I learned early in my work overseas to hoard *and even ration* the precious products, to make them last throughout a whole year or even a whole term!  

But it’s not just about having a box of 12 American deodorants under the bed, or a kitchen cabinet full of cereal, candy bars, and peanut butter.  I will not throw things away until I’ve used up every possible ounce of usefulness.  Just today I thought of all of this because I save the backgrounds from stickers, because I reuse the outline or “mask”  in my journaling (see photo). Where others see trash, I see one more use.  I save eggshells for my planters. I save jars for craft supplies. I save scraps of construction paper because it’s so hard to find here!  I am driven to reuse and recycle everything I can, especially if it’s expensive or hard to find - who knows when I’ll get it again?  

But here’s where it’s awkward...when I open that can of Crisco, and it expired five years ago.  (Does Crisco go bad?) The Olive Garden dressing expires in a month. That box of Jiffy cornbread mix might be from the last decade, but guess what?  We’re still eating it!  But maybe I should wait until Thanksgiving--a “special occasion” …. See how bad this is!?! 

There’s a proverb I love; I heard it attributed to the Amish, but I’m not sure where it first came from.  “Use it up, wear it out. Make it do, or do without.” And it’s the perfect motto for those of us “wearing out” the same jeans year after year, because our bodies don’t fit European sizing.  The ones “making do”  by creating homemade cream of mushroom soup in the American recipes we love.  The ones using up the hidden treasures one special event at a time.  And I suppose, the ones hoarding all the things that we don’t want to do without.