Have you ever wondered what it's like being a military wife? Follow these simple guidelines:
1.) Graduate college, write your NCLEX (nursing licensure exam), get married, say goodbye to friends and family, move across the ocean to a foreign country and learn a new language, all within a matter of months.
2.) Try and find a job in this foreign country, when you finally do, just get comfortable with it, make some amazing friends - then hand in your resignation because it's time to move again.
3.) Have your husband go on a "classified" assignment. You don't know where he is or what he's doing. Watch the news like a hawk and try and sift through headlines... end up empty handed.
4.) While he's gone on this TDY, contact TMO to find out when they'll pick up your HHG for your PCS and get on a wait list for a TLF, ASAP. Your friends back home have decided you don't speak English anymore.
5.) Have your car break down, your computer lock you out and discover your overseas military store no longer stocks your deodorant. Try and find deodorant in Germany, I dare you. I triple dog dare you.
6.) Your husband can't stand meat and fruit in the same dish. So, for your anniversary spent solo, you order in a ham and pineapple pizza, watch a romantic comedy in your PJs in the comforts in your living room and try and tell yourself that you're GLAD you don't have to get done up. Who wants to get dressed up and get wined and dined on their anniversary anyways? Not you, nope... you got Sandra Bullock and a pineapple pizza... what more could a girl want?
7.) Go shopping on base and and make conversation with the woman beside you in line. Over her 3 screaming/crying children you discover her husband is currently stationed in Iraq. Exchange numbers, knowing full well that you both consider it a lifeline to sanity.
My experience doesn't even compare to my sisters who have had spouses deployed for back to back tours... delivering a baby while their husband was thousands of miles away, or sisters who have been in the military for 10-20 years, enduring adventures and hardships endlessly. Ah yes, being a military wife means you have to let go of some comforts and certainties. It also means you get to travel all over the world and see places and embark on adventures you have never even dreamed about. It means that your friends and neighbors become your family. It also means you have a husband dedicated to serving and sacrificing for our great United States of America... and it means you're willing to serve and sacrifice too. You know you wouldn't have it any other way.
