Who Am I?

I’ve tried to not be labeled as a military spouse. Not because there is anything wrong with it. I am friends with some awesome military spouses. But I’m afraid that if I’m labeled as a military spouse, that is the only thing people will see.

Also, I don’t like lumping a bunch of people into one category. I’ve met so many different military wives. And I’ve only met one that was fully defined by it. I’m also the person that almost couldn’t get through the opening credits of the Army Wives TV show.

It certainly didn’t help my previous job search in North Carolina. I had one person tell me that being a military spouse was why they didn’t hire me. Not only is that insulting, infuriating, and more synonyms for angry – it’s also illegal.

I have also tried to not let my husband’s career affect me too much. After all, he is the one that signed up for the Army, not me. We met in DC. He was in a non-deployable unit (oh how I love those words). And I was a naive recent college graduate. I would support him – I went to every parade and ceremony that I could.

Then I moved to Chicago to go to graduate school. That’s where I got my first military reality check – Chris got deployed mere weeks after moving to Fort Bragg. Still I was able to handle it because we didn’t live together and I could bury myself in school work and friends.

Fast forward two moves and one deployment later, I came to the realization of just how ignorant I was when I thought I was ready to be a military spouse. Much like people say when talking about having kids – you can never be ready. And you can do nothing without a POA!

But this whole time I’ve been able to keep an independent identity, which I think is important, until now. That’s probably the hardest aspect of this move. Back in the states I was a marketer, an event planner, co-founder, volunteer, photographer, equestrian, wife, friend, daughter, and sister (not necessarily in that order).

So much of my identity and independence came from my profession (to include volunteering). I’ve tried to stay with marketing – tried working my company from halfway around the world, still trying to be a marketing professor (won’t teach until Spring). And now its onto non-marketing jobs, but I fear I won’t get one of those either.

So here I am – on this journey to rediscover who I am and what I want out of life. Wish me luck.