I eyed the calendar suspiciously. I blinked. That can’t be right. Didn’t we just do this like five minutes ago?! But as I looked again, I realized it to be true. The holidays are upon us.
Sure, that sounds a bit cliche, but seriously—it seems the older I get, the faster the pages of the calendar turn.
Dedicated to all current, former, and future military spouses. We appreciate you. Hang in there; you can do this.
A few anniversaries ago, my husband surprised me with a small gift. It was one of those Army wife stickers. But not just any sticker—one that said “Army Wife: Toughest Job in the Army.”
I was touched at the gesture, said a polite “Thank you?” (yes, with a question mark at the end), and put it on my car.
In my heart of hearts, I didn’t know how to react to the gift. I mean, yeah, sure, being a military spouse is a tough thing about 98% of the time, but it’s not like I’m getting deployed for a year at a time and carrying a rucksack on my back on a regular basis.
As military spouses, I’d say we have two distinct moments of the spouse experience: one we loathe and one we anticipate.
The one we dread is obviously the numerous “see-ya-later” moments with our beloved service members. Some days, as I kiss him and he walks to the door/bus/plane, I feel like we just did this same routine like 20 minutes ago. Gross.
But with the see-ya-later moments comes homecoming anticipation. And really, it doesn’t matter if they’re gone for a week to the field, a month to training, or a year to a desert somewhere, homecomings are always one of the “marked” military spouse adventures.
Last month, I shared the first half of what I deemed an epic list of “backward” PCS tips. (And yes, I’m biased.) My Facebook friends contributed to the humorous list, and now I would like to share the second portion of the how-not-to-PCS strategies. (To get caught up and read the first post in this series, click here)
We all know that rocking this military spouse life is rewarding. It is an adventure. But you know what? Sometimes that adventure can daggum stress us out. I personally believe that a PCS can be one of the most stressful events of our military lives.
So much coordination, so few answers.
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