army brat

A week or so ago (or maybe even longer) Kiera, from Imperfect Daisies, asked me to blog about my experience growing up in a military family. Honestly, I didn't mean to put off talking about it this long, I have been trying to gather up all my thoughts on the subject and figuring out how I could format it in the most clear way. Kiera I hope this answers your question! Sorry if it is a little long winded.

To give you a little background, my parents were both in the Army, in fact they met at the Officer's Club bar while stationed in San Francisco. My mom was only in for 6 years after college but my dad was in for over 20 year and retired when I was in high school (he now works for a non-profit organization.) Naturally we moved around a lot, the school I went to for 6th grade was also my 6th school since kindergarten, but when we moved to Maryland we ended up staying. So I was able to go to middle and high school in the same area. Also, fortunately for our family, because of the time frame and the role that he had during Desert Storm my dad was never went "off to war." What I am trying to point out with all this is that I think my experience was pretty different than army brats today. And I was also very fortunate that I didn't have to change schools during high school or middle school which from what I heard (and can imagine) is a lot more traumatic.

So what was hard about being an army brat?

• Moving around of course. It sucks having to leave friends no matter how old or young you are. Also my sister and I would get involved with an activity like gymnastics or a ballet and have to leave and start over somewhere else.


• Missing out on the experience of having a "hometown." I can't help but feeling a little jealous of people that have friends from elementary school that they still hang out with. Or those people that lived in the same house from the time they came home from the hospital until they went off to college.
  

And what were the good things?

• Getting to see (and live in) lots of different parts of the country. My family never was stationed overseas...unless you want to count Hawaii!


• Forming a close bond with your family, especially siblings. There was a lot of times when I moved to a new area in the summer and only had my sister to play with. It made us very close. In fact when we settled in Maryland and got involved with different things it actually was a little sad. I also feel like my family is close because we spent a lot of time together and had some different adventures. Of course we still do spend a lot of time together so I'm not sure the Army had a lot to do with that!


• Growing up on Army bases also is a really good environment because everyone is in the same situation. To me it didn't seem as competitive about money and people seem to care more about each other/their neighbors.


• The fact that my dad was in the Army also meant we had the means for my mom to stay at home with us which I feel is very important!

So there is my little...or not so little...summery! If anyone has any questions on this subject please let me know!