Home is where your heart lives. It is where your mind wanders when you daydream. It can move, it can change, but the feeling is always the same. The feeling of coming home is the feeling of acceptance. It is the relief of knowing you are safe, loved, and appreciated.

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As a military spouse, I move just about every 3.5 years. We have been in New England, Colorado, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Washington, and are facing an imminent move back to Oklahoma. This is what I have learned about home:

  • If you fight adjusting to a new location, it just takes longer to do so. If you arrive excited and looking for opportunities, you will find them. If you arrive with resentment in your heart, you will miss out on those opportunities.
  • Friends are your chosen family. Get involved in your chosen activities, make friends, and be worthy of their friendship. They can save you when you cannot save yourself.
  • Even when you are by yourself, you are not alone. With today’s technology, friends are just a phone call, Skype, FaceTime, email, or text away. All are instant. Reach out. They miss you too. Goodbye no longer means forever. It means that if the relationship is to continue, both will have to make adjustments and efforts to keep it going. True friendships stand the test of separation. I am blessed to have many such friends.
  • While you don’t have the opportunity to put down roots as deep as if you were in a more stationary lifestyle, you have the ability to find the home, activities, and life that you want at each given location that matches your given phase of life. You do not have a lifetime of history with this community, so you can sort of reinvent yourself! You have to retrofit your things to fit your homes, but not your homes to fit your life.  It can be an opportunity if you let it be.
  • Your past support doesn’t just disappear. Your family and friends are still there. Let them be, and be there for them in return.

As my family faces a move in 10 days, I am excited for the adventure and opportunity that we face. I am sad to be leaving behind the wonderful home that we have found here in Washington, but look forward to discovering what lies ahead. We will be closer to our New England roots, and Hubs will be home much more than has ever been the case in our marriage. The town is literally 1/12th the size of our current location, but this offers the possible return to a more simple existence. Who knows what life has in store for us? We can only thank those that helped make the Washington part of our lives as wonderful as it has been, and step into the next phase with open hearts.