2023/Sofia -

Growing up as a military brat, you’re constantly being told how lucky you are to have such experiences, how everything you’re going through now will shape you into the person you’ll become. But nobody mentions how you’re stuck in the shadow of your parent’s job, all of the goodbyes, along with the, “we’ll keep in touch!”’s you say but you know you never mean it. Nobody tells you how you have to struggle with the simple questions about where you’re from, and how you have to explain that you don’t exactly know.

As a military brat, I will never escape the way I was brought up. I will always remember that one house I once lived in, and I will always wonder about that one friend I had in the fourth grade who moved and never spoke to again. I will always be connected to every dandelion I see and I will never fully get closure for all of the things that ended before they truly began. The color purple will always be intertwined with me.

I will always be grateful for the experiences I have and will continue to gain through being a military child. But I’m also allowed to not enjoy every moment of it. I’m allowed to wish that things could be simpler, that I wouldn’t have to keep moving and shoving everything I own into boxes. I should be able to not want to leave everything behind every few years. I’m allowed to wonder every single “what if,” that crosses my mind, and think that maybe I won’t like the next place I move to.

Moving from one country to another, I miss whatever I don’t have. When I’m in Japan, I miss whatever the United States has to offer. When I’m in the United States, I miss everything about Japan. It’s almost like a curse, I can never be content without one, but I will never have both.

Being a military brat has taught me effective ways of packing and how to say my “goodbyes” quickly. It has taught me to never genuinely get attached to anything. It has taught me how to spot the best place in the airport and how to get comfortable on long plane rides. Nothing I will ever experience will compare to all of the knowledge I’ve grown to know through being a military child. I will always be indebted for everything I have been exposed to that has made me into who I am today.