Being a military spouse isn’t easy. Especially if you’ve never lived that type of lifestyle before. The only person who was in the military was my uncle and he was stationed in Germany for over 10 years. Because he was so far away for so long, it never seemed real to know what it meant to have someone you love in service. So, I grew up in the normal American lifestyle: I had a job, lived in Los Angeles for the last 6 years, and was lucky to be close to my family. My mom, sister, and brothers were 15 minutes away and all of my grandparents were 30 minutes away. So you see, I had no clue what it meant to be married to a Marine and his career.

I met my husband in college. He told me that his ambition was to become a Marine. That didn’t surprise me too much because his dad was a Marine at the time (retired after 28 years of service), his mom was a Marine (retired at 20 years of service), so it made sense that he was going to follow in his parents’ footsteps. Eventually, his younger brother also became a Marine. Getting to know his family and from the stories they told, it should’ve occurred to me that my life as a military spouse wouldn’t be the same as the life I was leaving behind. Like I said, not too surprised that he wanted to be a Marine, but I didn’t know EXACTLY what that meant until we got married. Continue reading →