17 Ways Military Spouses Are Lucky

Editor’s note: This post is sponsored by Operation In Touch.

 

Have you ever had one of those “I wish I was that lucky” moments? Maybe you saw on Facebook that your friend’s mother-in-law took her four kids for a three-day weekend. Maybe you heard that your neighbors received military orders to your dream duty station. Maybe your co-worker got the promotion that you had your eye on.

When faced with these bummer moments, if you’re like me, you might say, “Geez. I wish I was that lucky.”

And then, if you’re like me, you see this message on Facebook: “Luck is believing you’re lucky.”

Do you believe you’re lucky?

Luck is a state of mind. When we believe we’re lucky, then we find those lucky pennies sitting heads up on the sidewalk. Our perspective shifts from the dark clouds of gloomy thoughts to the rainbow that follows the rain.

When we believe we’re lucky, we don’t need that rabbit’s foot and we don’t need to roll the dice at a Vegas casino. We can simply make an endless amount of luck daily. And the best part? There’s always space for luck in our household goods shipment.

Here are some things in military spouse life that make us feel lucky:

1. Living in locations that are out of our comfort zone. 

When stationed in Okinawa, Japan, many of my relatives (the ones who were born and raised and will most likely die in their hometown) kept asking me, “How is it, living in Japan?” I always had the same answer: “While some people may be lucky enough to visit Japan, which in itself is amazing, we’re lucky enough to live in Japan for three years.”

2. Experiencing the pleasure of the PCS purge.

Then doing it all over again during the next move.

3. Our children can roam and explore their on-base neighborhoods.

Just put a box of Popsicles in your freezer, leave your garage door open, and watch what happens.

4. Companies offer us military discounts.

And they help us stretch the pennies when we need to.

5. Becoming friends with our opposite.

The military is a microcosm of America. As a member of that microcosm, we can befriend someone who is completely different than us. And, we get to teach each other about one another. Do you think I would have befriended a woman who grew up in Philadelphia if I stayed in my home state of Iowa? Do you think I would have learned to make tamales from scratch? Or cheer on high school students at a lacrosse tournament? None of these friendships with my opposite would have happened if I wasn’t a military spouse.

6. Lots of first kisses.

We’re lucky enough to get a second, third, or tenth “first kiss” when our spouse comes home from a deployment.

7. We’re military spouses in the digital age.

Can I get an amen? Or at least a Facebook thumbs up? I know that as annoying as a dropped FaceTime call can be, imagine waiting for letters to arrive or sending letters that may never get delivered. Let’s take a moment to thank our lucky stars that we get to be military spouses during the Age of the iPhone.

Speaking of the Internet ….

8. We can connect with military spouses stationed around the world.

Again, all through the support of social media, our network extends way beyond the gates of our military installation.

9. Option of location-independent employment.

How great is it to not have to find a new job with every move?

10. Amazon Prime ships to FPOs and APOs.

Even if it takes a little longer, we can still get all sorts of things from home at the push of a button.

11. Our kids practice their geography lessons with every introduction.

“I was born in North Dakota. My dad’s from Vermont, Mom’s from Oregon, and they met in Texas. My sister was born in Florida, and we’re moving to California this summer.”

12. We’re part of a community that supports each other.

Every day I see military spouses thinking of new and creative ways to support those serving on the homefront.

13. We’re have friends stationed around the country.

Cross country PCS? No need to book hotel rooms! Just plan your route based on your military friends’ current duty stations. Offer to cook them dinner in exchange for your room and board.

14. We get to know our postal carrier on a first-name basis.

Either sending boxes, receiving letters, or confirming that, yes, we’re the new folks in the house, the postal worker becomes a part of our lives.

15. We can take lengthy leave when time allows. 

We’re lucky our service members can save up their leave for month-long family vacations between military assignments. And if we’re really lucky, we’ll use our free military national parks pass to experience America’s natural beauty.

16. Duty stations let our families vacation far from home.

Only three more months in Hawaii before we PCS. Cousin Adam, book your flight today. We’re like a timeshare without any of the fees.

17. We volunteered to be military spouses.

For 99.9 percent of us, we didn’t set out to marry a service member. Love is a funny thing. We were lucky enough to fall in love with a service member and then we learned to love the Armed Forces as much as he or she does.

 

 

See, military spouses, we are the lucky ones.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.