WitchAndShaman
Truth Seeker
I always wondered if it would be really cool, or a real pain to be a military brat. How was your experience, WandS?
Seahunter, it was both for me.
By age 14, [oops, corrected my age] all of my siblings had moved out so I felt somewhat alone inside my home. As my parents had insisted, I’d spent the prior few years focusing on my friendships and my school (and piano lessons which I hated because I have zero rhythm).
Then we moved to Japan and I lost the two things I cared about most.
I went into a deep depression and withdrew from my family. I did make some few friends but we were living in temporary housing for months. With many people in that hotel leaving the island, it was hard to want to create any deep personal attachments. My school grades went from A/B to D/F.
At some point I got mixed up with alcohol abuse and mixing that with some pills. It took me about three months to figure out I was in serious personal trouble and that I was making everything be about “me”. I didn’t want to be a burden to my parents so I did what worked before and threw myself into some new positive friendships and school.
Everything for me turned around and I was able to discover the beauty of the island. Okinawa is tiny - 60 miles long and between 4-12 miles across. I traveled all of it as frequently as possible. For just a few hundred Yen (like one dollar) I could get taxied away into the island’s biggest city or into the wild. I scoured temples, an abandoned zoo, under water caves, and more. I flourished and grew up.
I’d say that most military families with children can find great personal growth and cultural wealth in deployments to foreign countries. However, I think the kids have to be given the appropriate prep and care as the move can be just as stressful on them as the parents. The kids have no control of the situation; therefore I think for me, I decided to manifest the outside world to look as chaotic as the world inside my head.
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