2024/Julia-25664

A Military Life is Hard! But it gets easier.

You could say I believe in hope or love. You could also say I believe in hard work and family. All those things are true but the thing I believe in most is “ A Military Life is Hard!”, but it does get easier. When you move to a different country or place that you have never been before, it is hard to adapt. You have to learn a new culture and make new friends. It can also be so lonely and empty. Eventually, you make new friends and adjust to life.

As a kid, I only knew one place since I was born. That place was Virginia. I always knew that I had lived in California and that I was born in Virginia. But I always thought that my parents chose to move. I soon found out that my parents had to move. But my little brother was born in Virginia, so I thought we would live there for the rest of my life. It was where my family and friends lived, until I got kicked out. My dad got new orders and we had to move. I thought we would just move to a different state or a different city in Virginia. When I found out that I had to move to another country across the world, it felt like the whole world just got smashed to smithereens. Virginia was the only place I had called home. I believe military life is hard because you always have to move and leave your life behind.

When we moved to Japan, I was so lonely and empty. I was so mad at my dad that I didn’t talk to him for a week. I also cried so much that my eyes turned super red. At first, we had to stay in quarantine for 2 weeks. When we stayed in quarantine I didn't like it because I was trapped in a small house with only the stuff I brought with me. We didn’t have our furniture yet so we got furniture provided for us. The beds had a plastic cover on them. Whenever we moved, the plastic would move too. We weren’t provided with entertainment, food, or utensils. I was also missing all my family and friends in Virginia. I felt very lonely. It was a really hard two weeks. The only thing that helped was talking to my family back in Virginia everyday. I believe military life is hard because you start with an empty house and get so lonely. Thankfully we have phones that allow us to connect to family and friends.

After we got out of quarantine, me and my oldest brother had to go to school. Before I moved across the world, I had a lot of friends and my family was always around me. When we had our first day of school, I was scared that I wasn’t going to make any friends. No one would like me and they would just laugh because I have so many freckles. When we got there, I just stayed to myself, too nervous to talk to anyway. My worries went away when I met two new friends, Nathan and Ashlyn. They were really nice and they didn’t make fun of my freckles. Eventually, I even met more friends. Military life can be hard especially when you lived in one place for so long and you had so many friends. But you can make new friends at your new home.

Going out in town was also very scary. People were talking in a different language and doing things I did not understand. After the school year ended I went to summer school. I did not know anyone and had to learn about Japanese Culture. I was really scared of learning something new. I also had a Japanese class that taught me some of their language. Japanese was really challenging to learn. But after summer school, I felt more comfortable going out in town. I started understanding some of what they were saying and understood what they were doing. I also enjoyed learning about Japanese history. A military life is hard because it is scary being in a new place but it eventually becomes easy and fun.

Summer school was fun but life was still hard because I moved to a new country, a new continent, and a new place that has a different language. It feels like you are starting your life from ground zero and have to learn how to talk again. It was also hard for me to leave the place that I have lived in for almost 8 years. I left all my family and friends behind but as I lived here, I made more friends and eventually learned more about their culture and language. I even get to talk with my family and friends whenever I want. I believe that “A military life is hard”, but I learned it does get easier.