I was blessed to come from a military family. My dad served in the US Marine Corps, my older brother in the Navy, my grandfather in the Army, my great-uncle in the Navy, and my cousin is recently enlisted in the National Guard. I hadn’t until recently actually been around a family member while they were active duty, which is an adventure in itself. Even though my dad finished his time before I was born the lessons he learned while he was active duty definitely shaped the way he raised my brothers and I. My brother has had one really long deployment and a few small “fishing trips” as we call them where they go out for a little while floating around then come home. Here are a few of the things I have come to realize in the 3 years I’ve been a Navy sister.

1. I never realized how often we talk

My brother and I would talk maybe once or twice a day mainly meaningless funny pictures while he was in A school. Now since he is on what my family has affectionately termed it “a big fishing trip” I spam his email and he gets back to me when he can. It does however make the moments when you get a message mean more.

2. You cry from happiness when they call

While my brother was at boot camp it was after a two important people in my life passed away and I felt a little like him leaving was another loss of sorts. However I remember the tears of joy that came down my face when I answered that phone and I heard his voice. We talked about how they gave him wisdom teeth surgery and he thought he had a whole piece of celery caught in his gum socket. I immediately felt like a baby for complaining for months about my mouth hurting. He was doing drills and being yelled at all in Chicago April weather with a mouth wound. I don’t know the temperature up there the whole time, but when I went to the graduation it was snowing and hailing in April and that was enough to make me want to be back in Alabama.

We took this picture waiting for our Chicago pizza, I can't tell if I'm holding him so close because I missed him or because I'm freezing.

3. You get super offended when someone bashes the military

I am one of those obnoxious family members who wears "go navy" things all the time and I’ve had people try and tell me well their family member's branch is better because of this and that. Well newsflash friend until the moment my brother retires from the Navy I’m his biggest fan. Recently my cousin graduated from the National Guard and boom guess what I’m going to be his biggest fan too cause I love them both.

4. I have a new appreciation for all holidays

I know understand how lucky I am to be able to be in a warm bed for every holiday and get to witness Christmas day unfold before my very eyes. Every year on Veteran’s day I think about how thankful I am for every single one of those men and women doing what I could never do every single day. Next time your day doesn’t go as planned at least you can remember that there are millions of men and women who love you enough to sign the ultimate check and pay that price no matter what.

While he was on deployment they took this picture and it literally meant the world to my family to see him holding this sign.

5. I have a countdown for their return date

I am a firm believer in the notion that counting down the days makes everything go faster. This being said when my brother went on his big deployment to the middle east for a long period of time, I downloaded a countdown app on my phone and would occasionally as a way of helping give him hope I would send the number at the end of a long email. This was to help him remember that he won’t be floating forever.

I was lucky enough to be able to have him at my high school graduation. As you can see my family doesn't know how to take off our sunglasses and look at the camera.

6. I want to buy everything at the PX but can't buy anything without them

When he was stationed about an hour away from home, I would leave every Friday at about 3:30 pm to go get him. When I got there depending on when he was released for the weekend we would go into the PX or NEX and look around. The NEX was often the best place to buy presents because there was no tax on anything I asked my brother to buy for me and it was a whole lot cheaper than the mall. The only problem was that in order to buy things you have to have a military ID, since I am obviously not my older brother’s dependent I had to wait for him to buy me the things I wanted.

His ship posts pictures of the sailors and the ship periodically through out the year and we found one with him in it which was a first for us.

7. Every country song about the soldier that didn't come home gets you

I love country music and as many of you know these songs are usually about the military, drinking, or relationships. There are a few of the military related songs that no matter what I am doing or where I am if I hear it I become a blubbering ball of sadness. It just reminds me that this job he took is a risky one that he could lose his life in it. “I Still Drive Your Truck” by Lee Brice is definitely one that comes to mind in the list of songs to get me in my feelings.

We took this one right after he got stationed at his first base.

8. You learn new geography

To be quite frank I could not have told you where Bahrain was on a map before my brother and a friend growing up were both stationed there at different times. I was ecstatic to know that they did get to see each other while they were doing their jobs over there. I can only imagine how much hope a familiar face brings to their line of duty. I also could not have picked out the city of Marceline, France on a map before my brother spent some time there. I did get some jam from there so now I can put the pretty jar somewhere special.

While the ship was off floating somewhere they took their yearly picture, it took my 15 minutes on an intense zoom to find who I thought was him. Even then I didn't get it right.

9. Emails mean more to you now than you ever thought they would

Soon after my brother was given the orders that he was being shipped off to Mayport (Jacksonville, Florida). We made a nonverbal pact to try and keep a constant flow of conversation even if it was about how the potatoes he ate on ship tasted like cardboard. I have been lucky in the fact that he has yet to be stationed too far from home. The current drive time is around six hours depending on who is driving. I also while he was on the big deployment I learned to watch out for a Norfolk, VA caller ID. When I first started getting them I thought it was a spam but soon realized its just my brother calling me like 8 months into his deployment from a phone I didn’t know he had access to.

10. You love them more than you did before they left

The term absence makes the heart grow fonder doesn’t only apply to those with boyfriends or girlfriends in the military. I seemed to love my older brother and his friends even more when they were gone. I learned that the love I previously had mixed with the pride I felt in my heart made a really strong connection. It reminded me why I am so proud and love him so much.

11.You wake up everyday thankful

I am constantly reminded when I look around that I have lived a privileged life. I have never woken up in fear that my family would be taken away from me today or if I would step on a land mine at some point on my watch. I can never explain how thankful I am that those men and women love our country so much that they wanted to make sure not only their family is safe but everyone’s families are safe. Thank you for your service and I am counting the days until you get to see your family again.

If you see a soldier, sailor, airman, or even a new recruit I can assure you telling them thank you for your service will make them remember why they signed that dotted line. I know many of the people I graduated with from high school have taken the call and I am proud of them just as much as I am of my big brother.