2025/Sayuri-

I’ve moved a total of 5 times and been in 6 different schools in my life. My family mostly lives on the east coast, and in all the places I’ve lived, it’s been hours away from them. I don’t get to see them as much as I wish I could because my family and I are constantly moving. Moving frequently, often every two to three years, makes us say goodbye to our friends, schools, and familiar places that we might have just gotten accustomed to. In a way, our lives are reset. However, being a military child made me learn to adapt to change and become more flexible. Whenever my dad leaves for a meeting in the States, it can be quiet at home. When I was younger and my dad would leave for deployment, I would be upset because I missed him. I would always wonder why he was gone for so long since I couldn’t understand why he would leave my mom and me. One thing I learned is that being a military child unites us and we can understand what others are going through. When I went to an off-base school, other kids would be treated a little differently if they came in randomly through the year. Meanwhile in DoDEA schools, it’s normal for people to come and go, so everyone is friendly and welcoming to new students. A challenge we constantly face is our friends leaving, or we are the ones to leave. From personal experience, being the one to move is harder. You lose all your friends and need to make new ones wherever you get stationed. Having friends move is also rough since you’re constantly losing friends and not sure when you’ll get to see them again. Overall being a military kid can be hard, but I’m still grateful for being a military child and its lessons.