We're Outta Here!

After many, many years of military life, WE'RE OUTTA HERE! No more deployments, no more TDY, no more FRG, and mostly no more acronyms!!! Retirement has finally arrived. I can say goodbye to all things Middle East related. Good bye to the sounds of random artillery fire and goodbye to the sounds of wive's sending their husbands off to war.

With those goodbye's however, I must also say goodbye to the only world I have known for the majority of my adult life.

The sound of packing tape has turned out to be a bitter sweet melody. Although I am extremely excited to say goodbye to this life. I can't help the sense of panic taking me over.

The mover's arrived bright and early this morning and suddenly it all became real. I would never see some of my best and dearest friends again. I would never again see a man in a neatly pressed uniform, and the "high and tight" will be a thing of the past. I will never again have to determine if that sound was thunder or artillery. I will never again hear reville or be in a movie theater where we must stand for the National Anthem.

I will never be at a spouse social (even though we all despise them, lol), and I would never again attend a potluck, a hail and fairwell or a military ball. It won't be long before I forget the term LES and become forced to use the term "paystub".

My children will no longer recite the Pledge of Allegiance before class or be seen by an "Army Doctor" at a military treatment facility. They will forget what it means to be an "Army Brat" and have a normal civilian life. Whatever that means.

Although, I may have learned to despise a lot of what the Army has presented us over the years, I can't say I am not walking away a better, stronger person. We Army wives complain. We yell and we scream. We beg and we plead, we mourn and cry. However, for the most of us, we survive. We wake up every morning, feeling a bit of safety knowing our routine is in place for another day. We grow so accustomed to our hectic lives, one could even say the chaos is what keeps us strong.

Now it's on to not only a new chapter in my life, but a new book. I will wake up a few mornings from now and realize my life has taken a major turn. It's like a scary movie, when you know the something is going to happen but you scream anyway.

The military has definitely changed my life in ways one can never imagine.

The Army is that family member, everybody gripes about and wishes they wouldn't show up to the party. But you still can't imagine your life without them.