Was This Your Dream?

Today I was sitting at Starbucks, hogging a table trying to study medical terminology while downing a double shot PSL when the girl next to me asked what the Marine Corps Sticker on my laptop was for. Now I'm not an overly Marine wear wife, but in place of the standard Dell circle, I stuck a small EGA. I told her my husband is a Marine and went back to studying.

A couple minutes later, she asks "Was this your dream as a kid?" Now she has to be close in age to me and really who dreams about being a military spouse. As a little girl I wanted to be a ballerina, a princess, a mommy, a teacher and a nurse but never was military spouse an idea. When I asked her what she meant, she said well on TV it seems like so much fun. The uniforms, free housing and big paychecks. Uh that does sound fun but its so far from real life.

I love my husband and I'm a proud Marine spouse, but this wasn't my dream life. We've moved two times in less than a year and to opposite sides of the country. I've settled into my new area just to have his orders re-issued and our lives turned upside down again. It's hard to finish my degree when we aren't in a place for very long. There aren't big paychecks like people think so we budget while I finish school. And the uniforms? As nice as they look, they are expensive as heck and so rarely worn. But in the off chance you need a certain uniform and it doesn't fit, its you who pays for it.

But as I was talking to her I saw that with the bad things like budgets, expensive uniforms that we have to pay for, early morning PT, long hours, and moving a lot, there's a great upside. Without the military we never would have lived right outside DC and had the chance to see so much there. Our last unit did a few spouses trips that were amazing and truly once in a lifetime things. Now we are living in San Diego, the military is helping pay for my school and while life isn't what we dreamed at 18 it is pretty amazing.