“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
A question I am almost certain that all of us have been asked at least once in our lives. I can remember as a little girl my answer would almost always be the same, “A Mommy or a ballerina”. Let’s just say, I am very glad the Mom job won over!
Do you want to know what never in a million years would have been on my list? Being a military spouse.
That’s right, I said it. I wasn’t made for this life.
My husband and I are high school sweethearts, and joining the military was not on his list of life goals when we first met. Yet, two and a half short years later… off to basic he went. Little did I know that this would be the first of many tests on our relationship and the beginning of a brand new lifestyle for both of us.
Being a young wife is difficult enough. You add the military in, and it will really crank things up a notch.
Those early years of our marriage were filled with shift work schedules and lots of passing kisses as one of us got home and the other was headed to work. I’ll never forget my first night having to sleep alone; you would have thought the world was ending. Seriously, I was a wreck. Looking back now I can laugh, but man was that a hard thing to have to adjust to as a young newly married couple.
I grew up in the same place my entire life, so you can imagine the shock when we got our second set of orders, this time out of our home state. We had been lucky enough to live close to family for years, so this really was about to be a whole new world. And if you’ve ever moved with the military, plus kids and cats, you know that that is an adventure all on its own! Ha!
I wasn’t made for this life.
I had never lived out of my home state and hate goodbyes… Hello PCS
I am a creature of habit and love structure… Hello ever-changing work shifts
I am an extrovert and crave quality time… Hello multiple TDYs
I have been a proud Air Force wife for almost eleven and a half years now.
We have made it through opposite work schedules, multiple moves, short weekend work trips, and month-long TDYs.
I have learned to embrace and expect the unpredictability that comes along with this military lifestyle (no matter how crazy it makes my over-planning self).
I have learned to appreciate those nights that he is home SO much more and the importance of having a good snuggle pillow for the ones that he isn’t.
I certainly wouldn’t have chosen this lifestyle, but I don’t think I could give it up now.
Rebecca, this is beautiful and written well. You have a gift with words and a story to tell. I am sure you will have quite a following. You truly have made a wonderful home for your husband Josh and children.
You are a strong woman and it shows. I am proud of you and proud that you think of me as your grandma because I am.
Rebecca, I can identify with SO MUCH of what you wrote. “Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht,” or man plans and God laughs – I never liked change, or unpredictability, or ambiguity, so of course I got “we have orders, but they aren’t here yet, and there are two places we might go”. Your positive attitude will get you far.
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