Would you choose it again?

Would you choose this life, aka-the military, if you knew then what you know now?  Wow, that’s a loaded question.  I was taken back a bit when asked this by a civilian friend.  She has watched me for years juggle the life of a single mom with a part-time husband.  This girlfriend has my life, but as a civilian’s wife. Our kids are about the same age, our husbands are very similar. So why do we have trouble relating after years of friendship? Well, because my husband is in the Navy.

Her husband is home every night. She makes dinner at the same time each evening, because her husband is there at the same time every night. He never works weekends or holidays.  He never goes away on business.

Once he went on a fishing trip for three days and she called me exhausted saying, “I know exactly how you must feel!”  I didn’t know whether to laugh because that was the funniest thing that I had ever heard, or cry because she really had no clue.  I just told her to focus on the fact that her husband would be home soon.  At that point, I had been alone for a month and it would be over four months until I would see my husband again. Continue reading →