Transition

     Over the years, a lot of my identity came within my time in service.  This wasn't just a pride thing, but a matter of the space and time where life just changed.  

    When I joined the Army, I had grand plans of becoming a helicopter pilot.  My time in the Army turned out much differently than planned.  I injured my back and my head during deployment before I had been cleared from my eye surgery that I needed to qualify as a pilot.  The injury was just one part of the unplanned path.  There would be violations of trust, overreaches of authority, challenges that would take longer than expected to overcome and in much of that pain I found both my identity and the loss of the identity I'd had before.  

    This is where I think many veterans have a challenge letting go.  When we joined the military, we did for a hundred different reasons, but no matter how long your time in the military lasts - it drastically changes you.  Some will walk away from the military and never want to look back, others will find that everything they are now is wrapped up in their time in service.  

    So much of everything that is now who I am is the result of many different situations, but at the tip of that is the military.  As time has gone on and I have had my time minimized by others, including a lady who retired from the reserves and told me that my medical retirement wasn't a real retirement or the multiple times I've had someone made remarks about my DV tags because they assume they are my husband's.  

    I've hit a point in life where I'm tired of living up to some standard of what people think I should be.  So while this will still have some points in which my military time will be relevant or my still current time as a military spouse will be mentioned, moving forward the topics will be much more focused on where I am at this point in time and the path that God has me own.  I hope you might stay along for this journey and see the messy days that sometimes comes in life.