2025/Amara-

Growing up as a military child, I became intimately familiar with the experience of loss and longing. Remaining as constant in each location, I would witness friends and neighbors leave, resulting in an unrelenting cycle of goodbyes. These emotions, once overwhelming, became something I became accustomed to at a young age.

For most military families, the average time spent stationed at any given base is usually two years, rarely any more than six. However, my experience was different. My father’s assignments often lasted anywhere from six to eight years, giving me a bit more stability than many of my peers. But while this allowed me to adjust and settle in, it also meant that just as I began to form close friendships and create a network of support, those connections were always inevitably pulled away. My friends would leave for their next "home," and once again, I would have to start building my close circle all over again.

It wasn’t easy to understand or relate to the constant movement of my friends who were given a new station far more frequently than my own family. I struggled to comfort them because I could not fully grasp the weight of their transitions. While I only had to endure two major moves during my childhood, some of my closest friends experienced seven or more before even reaching middle school.

In the early years, the impact of relocation didn’t fully hit me. I was only six years old when we left McChord Air Force Base, and in my young mind, I thought that every trip we made to the city of Seattle (located just about an hour away) was my family traveling to an entirely different country. My naive view made our first move a relatively easy process. It wasn’t until my final year of elementary school that I truly understood the gravity of change. At that point, we received the news that we wouldn’t just be leaving Hickam Air Force Base, my home for the past six years, but that we would be leaving the country entirely, headed for Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa Japan. I would not only be attending a new school, but experiencing a completely unfamiliar culture, in a place I had never imagined living. The dream of spending my middle and high school years in Hawai'i with my closest friends vanished as we boarded a plane to a new life.

While the instability and rapid adjustment may have caused me great pain while growing up, it also fostered a sense of resilience and adaptability in me from a young age. These are qualities which I feel are beneficial to me, especially as I approach possibly the greatest transitional period in a person’s life: leaving home and proceeding to college. Saying goodbye to friends, family, and the only home I’ve ever known will never be easy, but I feel a quiet sense of confidence in knowing that I've done it before, and I can do it again.