Being the child of a military family is a unique lifestyle. We all have different stories, we all start and end our experiences in different places. But, we are all tied together by certain similarities.

1. Your bond with other military kids is instant (and sometimes forever).

The other day I was paying for my lunch at a restaurant near my campus. When I handed the cashier my red Navy Federal debit card she told me she had the same one. I was so excited to see another military kid in Los Angeles I nearly cried and proceeded to hold the line up for 10 minutes while I chatted with her. Sometimes finding another military kid in your area is a rarity, but when you find one there's an instant connection based on shared similar experiences that no one else can relate to. Also, in the 8th grade I hid behind a small blonde girl during dodgeball in P.E. and I've talked to her everyday since.

2. Time is weird.

Most people would say that time never changes pace. But a military kid, though they understand the science of time, would probably argue against that fact when the year their parent is deployed feels like an eternity but their last year in their favorite duty station goes by in the blink of an eye.

3. The day your parent comes home from deployment is the happiest day ever.

Deployments are awful. They are filled with missed milestones and constant worrying. It gets harder when your friends' parents start to come home but your dad still has another month left and time moves slower than ever. But all of the worry and sadness goes away when he finally comes home.

4. Surprise homecoming videos make you cry like no other but you watch them anytime they come up on your newsfeed.

Those compilation videos have me in a soupy mess every single time. Plus they remind me of the time my mom tried to surprise my sister and me when our dad came home. My sister and I were both in elementary school. My mom pulled us out of class and told us she was taking us to the airport to get beanie babies (the gift shop had the best selection in town). I was stoked out of my mind because I loved beanie babies. When we got to the airport, there was my dad, home from deployment. Though we were over the moon to see my dad, we were both confused/slightly disappointed that the beanie babies had just been a façade.

5. Moving can be amazing or a real downer.

Here I am refusing to acknowledge the fact that I was moving from my favorite home for my senior year of high school. When you're a kid, moving is a breeze. You say a quick goodbye to your elementary school friends and head off to the next duty station ready to make a fresh start in a cool new place. You get the opportunity to travel all over the world which is something that a lot of people don't get to do. I lived in four different states and two different countries by the time I hit the 6th grade. Most people probably can't say the same in a lifetime. Though the travels are amazing, as you get older having to leave the current place you call home is rough. Saying goodbye to all your memories and all your friends is far from easy. But, you tough it out because your hardworking parents raised a strong kid.

6. Goodbyes are hardly forever.

The hardest part about moving is probably saying goodbye to all of the amazing people you met over your time in your current home. But the military makes the world very, very small and sometimes you move to a duty station and someone from a past one is there too. Every military family has another family that they've lived in multiple states with to the point that they become family too. I made two of my first friends when I was a wee baby in California. A few years later we were all in elementary school in Florida together and years after that two of us went to the same high school and took driver's ed together.

7. Meeting new people is a breeze.

When I first got my acceptance letter to college, I got really nervous at the thought of moving so far away from my family and starting over in a new place. But then I realized, I'd been able to start over so many times before so this time shouldn't be any different. And it wasn't. I made amazing friends in the first week of school and three years later I'm still living with them. It's a weird feeling knowing that you're living somewhere without the impending call that you're moving somewhere else. The only tricky part is when someone asks where you're from.

8. You have the upmost respect for all of those in the service.

You know what they go through, you know what their families go through. That's enough reason to have all the respect in the world.

9. You have a favorite duty station.

Every military kid has that one place that their family moved to that they wish they could've lived forever. Unfortunately that's not how it works. But, no matter how long you lived there it was your home and even if you moved away there's a part of you that still feels like it is home. Mine is Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

10. You wouldn't trade the lifestyle for the world.

Though you've probably cried a time or two (or 10) over having to leave a place you loved or over any of the other hundreds of stresses of the military life, it has given you a lifetime of experiences in such a short time