I've learned a few things during my time as a military spouse. What I find most interesting, however, is the stuff that I thought I understood before getting into this life, but later discovered that I didn't understand at all.
My first big surprise came a few months after we got married. My husband finished his schools and arrived at his first real duty station. I knew that he would be deploying at some point, and I had prepared myself for his six month absence. After a few days at the new job, he came home with his "workup schedule." I'm guessing this has different names depending on your spouse's branch of service, and what type of job he or she does, but for us, this was the schedule of all the pre-deployment trainings, exercises, and classes. Six months of gone for two weeks, home for one week, gone for another then back for a whole month. You know the stuff.
"Wait!" I said. "What is all of this ? I didn't know about any of this! This is not what I agreed to!"
And then there is my good friend Kathleen, a Army Reserve wife. As she explains it, "When they told you it was one weekend a month and two weeks a year, they didn't tell you that was how often they'd be HOME."
I'm sure there have been some moments in your life that you realized that things weren't the way you thought. C'mon and share in the comments - it'll be fun!
