Celebrating with a Ramen Cooking Class before a Military Deployment

Through seven years of teaching classes, we have met a lot of amazing people, many of whom are celebrating something very special. We are honored and thankful that they choose our classes as part of their special occasions.

We start our weekend classes by asking guests to introduce themselves and share whether they are celebrating something special. There's no pressure to share but we find many people around the counter enjoy hearing the stories of others.

Recently, a young couple introduced themselves to the group. They were visiting San Francisco and celebrating her coming military deployment. I had never heard that in our classes. But was immediately so thankful to be a part of their special time together before her deployment. 

My first thought was "thank you four your service." I asked he if minded to tell the group where she was deploying. I won't share her name, military branch or where she is deploying to so as to not invade her privacy. Needless to say, she is deploying to one of the most volatile parts of the world right now.  My thought then was "I pray for your safety."

Right now, the U.S. military has approximately 1.3 million active duty service members. There are more than 700,000 reserve and national guard members. Government statistics show almost 18 million living U.S. veterans in the country today.

Sometimes we forget, but every single day women and men join our military branches in service of our country. We go about our days of work, dinners and family fun while they go about their day often somewhere else in the world assigned to help keep the peace and to protect our country's interests. They will likely never receive enough thanks from a grateful country. But we owe all women and men of military service our gratitude. This is not political. It's about humanity. If someone potentially is asked to put their life at risk to protect mine, then I will forever be thankful, no matter who is politically in charge.

So for this young lady, her family and all of her loved ones, we wish her safety and security while in service and always a safe passage home in the future. Thank you to her and to all who have or will service our country.

Our classes are designed to be informative and offer some fun while learning about one of the most beloved noodles and soup combinations in the world. No matter what you are celebrating, we welcome you, your family and your friends into a class for your special occasion. Join a class at RamenPartySF.com.

---

Jeff Parsons is the Co-founder at The Story of Ramen.