In the first 15 years of my life, I lived in 7 different places (twice overseas), moved 9 times (twice when my mom deployed), and never stayed in one place for more than 4 years. To me, that was life. I was, and still am, a military brat.
My mother was in the U.S. Air Force for 25 years. I lived a military life for 15, and never knew anything else. When she retired 3 years ago, we settled permanently in Oregon. The life that I had lived ended, and I had no idea how to begin a new one.
I had no clue how to go from a life where the longest time I'd lived somewhere was 4 years. I'd never had friends for longer than that either. Sure, when you move, you can stay in contact. Some of my closest friends are those I met 4 years ago when I lived overseas. I haven't seen them in 4 years either, though. It's hard to never have a permanent address, never have a set group of friends. When you are someone who has never stayed anywhere longer than it takes to get through high school, it was hard to see groups of friends who had known each other since kindergarten.
Being someone who lived a mobile life, the adjustment to the idea that I now had a permanent home address was strange. Whenever I'm asked where I'm from, I know that there is a place that I can name as my hometown. However, whenever I do answer that question, I always feel the need to explain myself fully. I'm truly from nowhere. The world is my home. Doesn't that sound cheesy? It's because it is. At least, it was when I lived among other kids who lived through the same things I did. We, military brats, didn't complain about the moving, and the goodbyes to friends we wanted to stay with until we graduated high school together. This was our life, and we took it.
But for some reason, people always seem to almost feel bad, my not having friends every 3 years or so, when I moved to a new school. I never saw it that way.
My point of that entire, wonderful story is adaptation. It's that, no matter what you think you're going through, you can adapt. It may not seem like it, it may seem like whatever it is, it's never ending. I know that my moving so many times and switching schools may not be exactly what it is that everyone is going to. In fact, my adaptation wasn't the moves — it was the stopping moving. When my family settled, I didn't know how to not be the girl that moved every 4 years and left her friends.
But I figured it out. I made friends, good friends that I think will be lifelong. When I moved to college (look, another move!), I made more friends. I adapted to the questions and the curiosity, and the being an outsider.
My life as a military brat is over, but I still know that it's going to be part of who I am.
I've adapted to being a "normal" person. But I'll always be a military brat.
