immigrant

With me living in Boston and my sweetheart living in DC, flights were pretty common place. Since I wanted to maximize time with my honey I always took the super early flight out back to Boston. I always tried not to make conversation as I tried to catch my 40 winks before the plane left the runway. I intentionally skipped coffee and just wanted my sleep. On a flight where I was lucky enough to score the exit row, aka the legroom row, I was awoken by a flight attendant.

As I said I tried not to speak so I did not have to fully awake. She asked the regular questions about whether I would be able to “help in case of emergency” type questions that are part and parcel of sitting in an exit row. I nodded. She then asked if I spoke English. I nodded again.

Then she asked me to say a sentence to show I really could speak English. I was ready to smack her.Yes, yes, I know that it was a valid question since what if I was just nodding and did not understand English, but I also knew that the chances of being asked that question had I not been glaringly brown were pretty slim.

Tagged as: color, english, flights, immigrant

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