The beginning.

October 30, 2010. That was the day that I got “promoted” to military wife status. That was the day I married a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. It was the best day of my life and the day that I thought I should start a blog on the military life. So here it is.

Military life began for me in January of 2010 when my then fiance left for Officer Training at Maxwell AFB in Alabama. I’ve always respected military and their families because I’ve always imagined that it’s a rather hard life to live. I can now say firsthand that I was right. I always pictured my future as graduating college, getting married, starting a family, all of that in my home state of Michigan. I never had any intention of leaving the 15 mile radius around my hometown. Then I met this boy and everything changed. Suddenly my future became full of a lot of moving and a lot of separation. 2010 was very trying for me. The first three months of the year were spent being hundreds of miles apart from my fiance, something that was new to our relationship. Then, upon his return from training, we had two weeks to enjoy Michigan before we were packing up everything we own and moving to Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. Five days after moving here, my fiance left again for more training, leaving me in an area where I knew no one. I was incredibly homesick and I wanted so badly to be done with the Air Force and back in Michigan with all my family and friends.

It has now been eight months since we moved here and I am still rather unsure of the Air Force lifestyle. I’ve met some great people, have made our house feel more homey, and have returned to Michigan fairly regularly but I’m still not a huge fan of this. I’m not good with goodbyes so it’s hard to make some great friends only knowing in the back of your mind that you’ll be going your separate ways in just a few years. It’s also hard to feel like a place is really “home” when you’re never in the same place for more than a few years. Also, the military life isn’t very luxurious. We live paycheck by paycheck, barely able to afford much in the way of going out and having fun, because we don’t have the money for it. So the days are spent sitting home with nothing to do and no money to do anything, a routine that gets very boring very fast. Finding a job is a challenge because our address shows up as a military address when it’s put in the computer at most companies and no one wants to hire someone who isn’t going to stay. To say this lifestyle is frustrating is an understatement. And I haven’t even gotten to deployments yet!

Little by little, though, I’m learning how to be a better military wife and I’m slowly learning to just make the most of this life, even if it isn’t ideal. I’ve learned to enjoy the people I meet because, yes, we will have to go our separate ways someday but, until then, just enjoy the company. I try not to let the boredom and lack of money get to me and I try not to vent too much to my husband who felt bad from day one about taking me out of Michigan. I truly miss Michigan more than I even thought I would and I’m already looking forward to the day my husband retires and I can go back to the home where I left my heart. Until then, here’s my adventure in the Air Force.