Adjusting to Adjustment

Adjustment is something every spouse has to do and has to get used to. If you’re the spouse of someone in the military, you know that all too well. On top of having to adjust to being a wife and living with your husband you have to learn the language of the military. You have to learn what the difference between Woodland and Desert is. You have to learn what skivvies are. You have to learn all the acronyms and what they mean. Most of all, you have to learn to adjust from being a wife with her husband to a wife going through deployment. For those of you who have children, you have to learn to teach your children where daddy is and why he’s gone so long and you have to learn to be a single parent (so to speak).

It’s hard to go through a deployment. I thank God that our deployments are 7-8 months because some other ladies don’t have it that great. I know that I have it easy in that sense; however, it is also harder on my part because my husband is a grunt. Each job in each branch as its advantages and disadvantages and you as a wife need to learn to adjust to all of it. You have to know what the hell a POG (pouge) is. For those of you who are reading this right now thinking “What the hell is that?” it means ‘Person other than grunt’. Those are the boys you see riding around in cop cars and the ones that check your ID, pass and tags at the gate and the ones that give you passes and tags at the main office and basically anyone that isn’t a grunt.

Anyways, back to deployment. First, you adjust to living on base and living with your husband. You have to adjust to different field ops and school and classes. You have to adjust to deployment, which I promise you will be the hardest thing for you to adjust to. Most of the time, once you adjust to being alone during deployment, it’s time for homecoming and then you have to adjust to being back with your husband and cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner for two. You have to adjust to sharing the computer and not being able to watch whatever you want to watch whenever you want to watch it.

Learning to go through a deployment is quite an experience. Not only do you have to learn to sleep alone you have to learn to do everything you once did with your husband- alone. Grocery shopping, watching television, driving, eating, drinking, texting, playing games, showering and everything else you can think of that you did with your husband.

I get through it and those of you who haven’t been through a deployment yet, you will get through it too. No one can tell you how to make your deployment easier. Something that works for me might not work for you. The things that worked for me were basically just staying busy. I never had any down time unless it was time to sleep, shower or write a letter. Other than that I was constantly going and constantly busy and it helped me keep my mind of everything which helped make it seem like the time apart wasn’t as long.

Make it through deployment and get to homecoming. I promise you, homecoming is amazing. It is the best feeling I have ever felt in my entire life. It was like falling in love all over again even though I was already in love to begin with. Seeing your man walk off that bus, through that door or off that plane is the best feeling in the world. Holding him in your arms again is pure heaven. That first kiss after months and months of waiting makes all the sleepless nights worth it.