We’ve all heard that oh-so-delightful <sarcasm here> quote, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
Several years ago, this quote always ticked me off. Mainly because I wanted my dearest, darling, most-handsomest-stud-of-a-new-husband around all the time.
Most of our courtship was long distance, a few short months living four hours apart, then 12 months of a deployment. By the time our wedding day rolled around, I was over the “absence” part and all geared up for some lovely together-til-death-do-we-part time.
But we all know how the army rolls. And my new stage five clinger self didn’t take it well.
About three months after we were married, hubby left Fort Riley to go to South Carolina for Drill Sergeant school. He was only gone for a couple of months, but man– I missed that guy.
After graduation, he came back to Kansas and we prepared for our first PCS as a family. It was memorable to say the least.Finally, we arrived at Fort Benning to begin our time as drill sergeant. “Ah yes,” I thought to myself. “Two whole years of non-deployment duty, minimal schools and we will actually be living in the same zip code.”
Did I mention I was a brand-new spouse who spent a little too much time living in Pretendland?
Long story still long, those two years were pretty intense. Super long hours for him, me making the bad life decision to not reach out to my community which lead to me realizing that I HAD to have other adults/pillars of support than my husband.
Fast forward a couple of duty stations and several years later.
We have just arrived back in Georgia at a new duty station to serve as a Ranger instructor for the next three-ish years.
I don’t know if I have just (slowly) grown up as a milspouse or just learned a lot really fast, but things are much different (see all: better/less stressful) this time around.
Sure, the job is different. But I am different person too.
Want to hear more about my milspouse revelations? Click here to read on.
And PS: Can I just say I am so very grateful to have a husband who is totally worth all the “missing?”
Well good. Because I just did.
Grateful in the Hard Stuff,
