An Open Letter to the Military Girlfriend I Was Two Years Ago

Dear you,

I know exactly how you feel. You’re standing on your front lawn in your bare feet, the March sun beaming on your head. He’s walking away and all your left with is the Navy shirt that he got when he enlisted and your hand on your lips because he just kissed you for the first time…and last time for the next nine weeks of bootcamp. This moment that you are experiencing right now will be your first memory of being a military girlfriend. And that feeling you are having is going to become a normality in your life. The goodbyes are going to become a regular occurrence.

The Horrors of My Boyfriend’s 12-hour Shifts and How I Deal With Them

….I have a phone full of these kinds of messages. The only time Taylor has a chance to talk is late at night but I have to go to sleep early because I wake up early to go to work. I text Taylor for maybe 30 minutes in the morning and then I get the message that he is leaving for work.

Now, don’t get me wrong, he is very sweet in telling me to have a good day and reminding me that I’m loved everyday. I like that about him but I absolutely hate getting these messages because I know what it means: another 12 hours of not talking.

…Which really sucks. He’s my best friend and all this stuff in my life is happening and I’m sure he has a lot on his mind and I can’t tell him any of it because he is always gone. This frustrates me, infuriates me at times even. But over the past few months, I have learned a thing or two about dealing with this…

The Importance of a Beach

“We need to go to that beach one last time.”

For most people the beach is a place to lounge around at, sunbathe, swim in the ocean and spend a day with family or friends. For me and Taylor, I think Sullivan’s Island means a tad more.

Meet A MILSO Monday: Alexis and Jordan

What is it like to be a MILSO? I am a 20-year-old Girlfriend to a Navy Nuke Sailor. It’s incredibly difficult. My dreams are to move to New York and perform on Broadway. His dreams are to serve his country. So with that, we will not live together much of the next six years. Knowing that is hard. He is currently in school learning about his future job as a Submariner Electronics Technician. With his PT, study hours and inspections I talk to him a total of 2 hours a week. That’s spread out through the week and day. It sucks.

Meet A MILSO Monday: Stefanie and Ray

Ray and I met in high school through mutual friends. I currently had a boyfriend so nothing was going to happen between us at the time. We became best friends our sophomore year, we did everything together. Our junior year, we started to lose touch and saw less and less of each other. During senior year, my boyfriend at the time and I broke up. Ray was there for me through it all and made sure I left the house to help get my mind off of the break up. One night we were with another friend of ours and I remember Ray asking me questions about if I ever dated a guy in the military how loyal would I be to him?

At the time, I was dead set on not dating someone in the military, mainly because I did not think I could handle if they were to get deployed and not knowing what was going on.