Our Military Story
Hub and I met in college, the second semester of our freshman year, to be exact. He was in the ROTC program, and I was pretty much clueless to all things military. We started dating and I began to learn a little bit more about the Army, at least the Army in ROTC land. I learned that ROTC cadets did push-ups... lots of push-ups. I learned about a push-up work-out involving a deck of cards. I also learned that one could get quite a group of people doing push-ups together in the dorm lobby, if one was willing to be the loner weirdo starting a push-up work-out in the dorm lobby in the first place. Hmmm... what else did I learn about the Army from ROTC. That's about it, I guess - all about push-ups. Oh, and running. I learned that ROTC cadets do a lot of running too... and sit-ups. Can't forget about those. Basically, I learned that I would never cut it as an ROTC cadet, not to mention a soldier. And I learned that Hub was tough. He had to work hard, and I admired him for getting up so early to go do tough work-outs (complete with scary Senior NCOs shouting and making cadets low-crawl laps around the gym for being late), and then still having the energy and focus to go to class and face all his studies.
I admired him even more about four years later. Hub was still getting up early to do tough work-outs with scary senior NCOs shouting (only they didn't scare him anymore), going to school, working, and taking care of his wife (me) and our new baby girl.
Of course, I didn't learn a whole heck of a lot about the real Army from ROTC, but once Hub pinned on that gold-bar, I learned fast. Since then, Hub has served a 15 month tour in Iraq, we've moved 8 times (not all of them PCS moves... that would be way too many PSC's considering the short time we've actually been in the Army), spent almost 22 months apart, lived in some beautiful and exciting places, and met some of the most wonderful people.
I'm still learning. I'm learning that this military life is predictable only in the sense that you know to expect the unexpected. I'm learning that it is a roller coaster ride with extreme lows, extreme highs and everything in between. I'm learning that separations are, to put it kindly, character building, but the reunions are some of the sweetest moments a person can experience in this life. I'm learning that having friends all over the world is really nice, and feeling at home in many different places (because they have been home at some point) is also really nice. I'm learning that home is not so much a physical place as it is a feeling. I'm learning that I'll never stop learning...