2025/Olivia-35009

I love being a military child, a military "brat," because of the different experiences I get to have. However, being a military child can also be sad sometimes when you have to move or your parents deploy. The symbol for military children is a dandelion, There are many different thoughts of what the dandelion symbolizes. I think it symbolizes that, like dandelion seeds, they fly around to many different places and grow there, like we thrive wherever we move.

Being a military child is cool because you get many different experiences. The different types of experiences are cultural and traveling. When you're a military child, you get to travel. Did you know that some people stay in the same country for their whole lives? We get to travel a lot because when we PCS (move), we go to different countries. We also get to have lots of cultural experiences because I currently live in Japan and I have been able to eat Japanese food, learn about their religions, go to the tea ceremonies, just this Friday we had Japanese students come to are school and I was able to talk to them in Japanese, ceremonies, and celebrate their holidays.

However, being a military child is not fun sometimes. It is not fun sometimes because your parents get deployed or TDYed. My dad was recently deployed to Palau for 6 months. This was the first time that he was deployed that I remembered; the last time I was around 1 year old. It was very rough because he missed my sister's birthday and mine. He also missed Christmas. Fortunately, we were able to visit him for Thanksgiving. Another reason that it is sad being a military child is when you PCS. When you PCS, you feel like you're starting over, you feel like you were just born, but you already know how to walk and talk.

Being a military child has some pros and cons, just like everything else in life. I'm so happy to be a military child with all my different experiences.