2025/Claire-33194

Being a military child isn’t easy. Being a military child is challenging, I should know. I am a military child. It means you don’t have a group of friends forever or you don’t grow up in the same house. I will tell you what it is like for me.

We all know it’s hard to be a military child. You move to different houses, you get enrolled in new schools, get new friends. Look at it this way: You have a group of friends in one place and you don’t want to leave them, right? Eventually, you move and meet new friends. This is a consistent life of being a military child.

Teachers, students, and staff work together to make schools like Andersen Elementary School (AES) a better place for students. That's what happens when you move. You make schools a better place to learn. You make people's days by just smiling at them. You help your family stay strong and keep pushing through the rough but I know what made this school such a cool place. All the people in my classroom rely on it: the military. Do you realize you're on GUAM! A tiny island it’s only 212 mi² that's small! You do realize how lucky you are?! The military helped you get here with amazing principals, teachers, and friends. You can’t buy friends or teachers like this, you have to make friends, you have to build the school community.

Because I’m a military child I got a chance to meet all of you, the staff and people that made this school a better place to learn. That is once in a lifetime. Unless we move back but that would be a 1% chance, again the military.

The first place that I moved to was Casablanca, Morocco in Africa. That place is HUGE. My brother and I didn't have school there so I couldn’t meet anybody new for school. But I could meet a lot of people in the neighborhood. My best friend was Auchie, a dog. Although some might say dogs are easier to be friends with than people. He always crawled through our little fence to hang out. We also had a turtle named Rocco for Morocco. He used to eat hibiscus flowers and he also used to follow Auchie. But when it was time to move the owners wouldn't let us take Auchie so we had to leave him behind. We moved to Virginia without Auchie but got Red back, that is our other dog.

Once I moved to Virginia I went to PreSchool. I was TERRIFIED! But I realized my parents were there to help me. It was fun to meet the class. In preschool I met a kid named Penny and no she was not an actual penny. She and I were best friends. The one thing that helped me make friends were my parents.

That is what it's like to be a Military child. It’s a whole bunch of emotions to get used to. But your family is there to guide you.