In this military life, separation in the military is almost guaranteed. Between TDY, training, time in the field, deployments—the list goes on and on—our service members often have to take time away from their spouses and families. Often, we focus on that separation; some of us dwell on it, some of us try to ignore it, but it can still get at us despite our best efforts.
When our service member leaves, we’re faced with two choices: allow our emotions to take over, or try to look at the bright side. It never gets easier to have our loved ones gone, but we can try to see the good in it.
At the time of this writing, my husband has been on TDY for the past six weeks. I went into the separation with some anxiety. Despite all of my worries, I tried to face it with a positive outlook. In the past, my time away from my husband has yielded incredible learning experiences that, to this day, I’m thankful I had.
I married my husband in 2009. After living together for six weeks, he left for a year of TDY at various locations around the US. I was nervous about how I would handle it, mainly because one year, 52 weeks, 365 days, is a really long time! After he walked out the door, loaded up his car, and departed down the street, I took some deep breaths.
I might have even shed a few tears.
In the end, we were able to see each other a few times during that year and, looking back, I definitely had it easy. I was still living in the same town in which I grew up. All of my family was local. I still had the same friends I had acquired during high school and early college. I worked a part-time job that I loved, which occupied the hours when I wasn’t attending college for my senior year.
Even though I had it easy, I learned a few things.
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