Military children go through a lot in their lifetime, and I mean a lot. Within the first year of their parent’s enlistment, they have already said good bye to more people than anyone ever will in their lifetime. Moving all around the country takes a toll on a military child, and going away to college is no different.
My father enlisted about 11 years ago, so I have had my fair share of scenery changes. I grew up in Massachusetts when my father enlisted. I moved to Connecticut first, then Louisiana, and finally Georgia. Immediately before moving to southern Georgia, I had an internship in another portion of Georgia. Within two weeks of officially moving to Georgia with my family, I had to move into college. I did not have much time to adjust to my new town before moving into another new area once again.
Going through the amount of changes that I went through this summer took a large enough toll on me as it did, but going away to college was the icing on the cake. I do not handle change well, and attending a school six hours away was even harder. I still struggle with attending college at times, but I try to make it look like I have my life together. I won’t lie; I don’t have my life together at all. I just roll out of bed ten minutes before my first class of the day half of the time, and I put a smile on my face. Military children know how to make it look like they know what they are doing because they deal with enough stress as a child as it is.
I guess what I’m saying is that it is not easy being a military child away at college especially when you are six hours away and having to hear about major family events through text message or phone calls. Deployments and moving around every three or four years is enough for a military child to handle as it is, but when you throw in moving to a new town, going to college and deployments every couple of months for a military child who does not handle change well is like a tornado going through their head every second of every day.