It's inevitable in life. Sometimes change is harder to take than others (like your 3 1/2 year old no longer wanting/needing a nap everyday... yikes!) and sometimes change is welcome.
In the military community, change is constant. Moves, deployments, last minute changes in training. Things move fast and never stay the same. It's exciting! Since everybody is in the same boat, everybody is putting themselves out there in big ways to make new friends or to make things easier on a new neighbor who is (also) far from home.
We've dealt with a lot of change in the past almost 5 years (whaaaat?!) of marriage, but are in the midst of our biggest season of change yet.
Last week, James found out that he would not be re enlisting and that he would be transistionig out of the Marine Corps on February 5th. He found out on the 9th of January. So that gave us just under 4 weeks to figure out our next chapter.
At first, there was shock. I cried. We knew it was a possibility, we've known all year that it was a possibility, but still. Shock. I cried for my friends and my house that I had to leave so soon. I cried in fear of the unknown. I cried because for 5 years now (and for 2 years of dating before that) the Marine Corps was such a huge part of my life and I had no idea how I was going to let it go.
I gave myself some time to feel sad and to feel scared, but then I shook it off and got to work. That weekend we researched and discussed til our eyes were crossing. The more things we figured out, the more excitement began to edge out fear. Now, a week after first hearing the news, it's still a little scary (isn't that true of change most of the time?) and we are still sad to leave the family we've made here, but we are EXCITED about what's to come! James is ready to go to school and do something new. I'm ready to be near our families and start building a home for us back in Pennsylvsnia.
I still struggle with leaving the Marine Corps behind. The past two days have been the loud, whole house shaking crazy artillery kind of days. I am going to miss laying in bed at night while my walls shake from nearby explosions. I think that might be weird for some friends, but other friends will understand what I'm getting at.
If I've learned anything at all about myself in the past 7 years being a military girlfriend, and then spouse it's that I am adaptable. I am strong. I am resilient. I've got this.
And can I just conclude this post by saying thank GOODNESS for Facebook? It's a lot easier leaving behind our Marine Corps family knowing we can keep in touch with them through social media. I know there's plenty of 'Facebook haters' out there, but I am NOT one of them.
