Why I Love The Military Lifestyle

by Jamie Wilson | More from this Blogger

04 Jun 2006 09:46 PM

Okay, so I could live a lot cheaper back where I came from in Kentucky. So I resent being torn away from the beaches I loved at Pensacola. And so I hate it up here in Connecticut, a foreign land for a born-and-bred Southerner.

It doesn't matter. I still love being a military spouse.

For one thing, I have the advantage of moving all over the world, without the decided disadvantage of being sent out to sea or deployed somewhere unpleasant. Without being a Navy wife, I would never have discovered how I loathe New England.

I also would never have discovered how much I love Florida, and how much I love Disneyworld (where I plan to retire to someday and live in Cinderella's Castle in the secret apartments that Walt Disney had built into it! I can dream.)

I'm also thrilled that we're supposed to go to Hawaii on our next orders this year. A three-year stay at a vacation paradise - sounds pretty good to me!

So number one has to be the travel. Number two is probably the freedom of knowing I can work from home, or try other jobs, and though we may scrape, we'll still be able to survive with military pay and BAH. They aren't likely to fire my husband, after all, unless he does something really dreadful - which won't happen. And because I had that freedom, I now have a career as a freelance writer, something I've wanted all my life.

I love being able to expose my children to the cultural possibilities in all the places we live in. I was a single mom before I married my husband almost three years ago, and I didn't have a hope of moving away from Kentucky - and though I love Kentucky, there are a lot of things it doesn't have. An ocean, for instance. And where we are now, we're about two hours from either Boston or New York City. In Hawaii, they'll have a chance of meeting people from all kinds of different cultures.

What am I forgetting? I know there are other things you love about being military spouses - tell me!

Learn more about Jamie Wilson

Jamie is a Navy wife and mother of three boys, and is a full-time freelance writer. Her most recent project, coming out soon, is a serial novel about the pirate Anne Bonny.

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Libby Pelham (12880) 05 Jun 2006 03:08 PM

I loved living in CA, but leaving it was even okay. They paid me unemployment because I had to leave when my husband got new orders - something Arkansas REFUSED to do. I guess they figured I could just stay there and work.

Jamie Wilson (481) 05 Jun 2006 09:08 PM

That's right, all the states do unemployment differently. Wasn't there a law passed or presented not too long ago to force them to regularize that? Or maybe I just remember a bunch of different state laws I was reading about.

Spouse employment is one of my huge gripes, but I won't talk about it much here except in generalities. I'm planning a whole separate blog for that because I'm planning to raise cain and take names. I've already started that elsewhere -- I got the attention of an IG, believe it or not.

Eliza Ferree (725) 01 Dec 2006 05:34 AM

I love moving new places and experiencing new things, however I learned I don't like being pregnant in the heat of the summer. Ikkk.