Jaivyn O...
Yokota Middle School
My father and I have a not-tense relationship, but we had a relationship where I would struggle to talk to him and respond to him because he was gone most of the time doing his thing on a ship. His work in the navy called for him to be away from home at least once a week. It felt like he was traveling the speed of light without my mom and I staying on the ship during duty or another deployment the next month. He would be gone for as short as 2 weeks, or as long as 8 months doing something out near the coast of Japan. I kind of got used to my dad being away for so long. My mom would ask me after we drop my dad off in the morning to go on deployment before school, “Are you sad your dads leaving.”
At first, I would respond “yeah I am.” and slowly it became “Not really.” I feel a little guilty about this, but now that my dads here in Yokota Air Base on shore duty, I have to now get used to him being home all day. It's definitely a big change of pace and our relationship has been very much improved. It's like watching your favorite show over and over again, it's not boring but it's still fun to watch in the background whilst doing other things.