Saturday, February 8, 2014

Far from boring, and very romantic.

This "other world" comes with a variety of misconceptions (which I will save for another post), one being that for the spouse and family members, this life is boring.

If you consider moving every three or so years, traveling the world, constantly meeting new people and trying new things - the list goes on and on - boring, then I suppose it is.

This topic was my favorite one to discuss with my interviewees while researching for my blog. I received an array of answers, some of them quite personal. 

One woman who recently married a 2LT said that the Army is far from boring and has already blessed her and her husband with exciting experiences that she may have otherwise never had the chance to explore. Following her husband's graduation from West Point in May 2013, Lindsay Lundeen and her husband David took a road trip from her home in Georgia to David's first duty station at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Lindsay marks this as an exciting time in their short Army career because she realizes that if it weren't for this lifestyle, she "would've more than likely stayed in Georgia and never gone outside the southeast." For David and Lindsay, their time at Fort Leonard Wood was short lived and they have since took a second road trip to Fort Carson, Colorado where they will stay for the next few years before the Army sends them on yet another adventure, meaning much more excitement for the Lundeen's to look forward to!

I think one of the greatest pros to the military lifestyle, and one that I am most definitely looking forward to myself, is making friends and having people you know all across the world. I've heard many of the military families I know talk about making new friends each time they move because unfortunately you can't pack up the ones you have and take them with you. They refer to this as "friendship dating" just as this article on www.militaryspouse.com describes. 

A few weeks ago, 2LT Witt and his wife Kayla (from post #2: Moving!) moved to their new home in Clarksville, Tennessee while 2LT Witt is stationed at Fort Campbell. Kayla posted a Facebook status referring directly to the friendship-dating she would soon have to attempt at their new home. Her status said this:
That all too frequent moment of military life when you realize you are once again friend-less (womp womp) and required to seek out what I have begrudgingly deemed the "girlfriend date". Perpetual first date awkwardness that is necessary and worthwhile to find those invaluable true and effortless connections.
Basically what it all boils down to is this: being a part of the military lifestyle requires a lot of moving, which requires always leaving old friends and making new ones (friendship dating), which is pretty much like dating to find your spouse again - sometimes awkward, sometimes funny, sometimes effortless, never boring and always exciting.

And, oh how romantic it is to be in love with a man in uniform. 
Okay, it's not all about the uniform (although I know some people who would beg to differ), but the military lifestyle carries with it a great sense of romanticism.

It's really cool to live in many places around the world, it's really cool to have a lot of friends, and it's really cool to experience the exciting and interesting lifestyle of the military world. What's not so really cool is that military families often spend more time away from their service member than they do with them. Almost all of the spouses I interviewed noted that one of the most romantic things about their lifestyle is really embracing the time they have together because, oftentimes, it isn't much. And while they are away, e-mails and snail mail recurrently bring tears, packages in the mail are thrilling, and enjoying a dinner or movie date over video chat can make your entire week. This is romance.

Recently while reading through the articles on www.militaryspouse.com, I came across this one. I immediately thought to include it in this particular post when talking about the "excitement" and "romanticism" of the military lifestyle. I know it's not romantic in the sense of couples and relationships, but I'm hoping you can see my connection between the topic of my post and the story in the article: Because of the duties that this husband and fathers job entails, he had recently spent a majority of the year away from his wife and daughter. As a gift to the three-year-old daughter before her daddy had to leave, yet again, the mother planned a surprise for her to dress up like a princess and go with her prince in shining armor uniform - her daddy - to their very own personal ball. The pictures throughout the article say it all. 

So as it goes, what is more romantic than loving a man in uniform?


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