Starting Over... Again

Hi… I know, it’s been a while. Life has been busy and well, my time at our last base was actually pretty good. There were only a few moments of drama, but overall, it was good. When the new commander came in, his wife was super chill and actually really cool. For the first time at a base, I had a group of really good friends who I regularly hung out with.

It sounds weird to say that it was the first time, right? That doesn’t mean that I haven’t had great military friends, it just means that I haven’t had many. That’s always been strange for me too, because I’ve never had difficulty making friends and fitting in when it comes to real life, but I am not great at being a military wife in general. I’m not sure why, but it is the one time that I just can’t keep my opinions to myself.

When they were handing out the military wife Kool-Aid, I must have been drinking from my own flask or something that day because the phrase, “well, that’s military life,” makes me feel rage-y (yes, I know, not a word).

The point all of this babbling is that we’ve just moved to a new base, so, here I am starting over again. After such a great experience, you’d think it would be easy for me to dive right into meeting people again… But old habits die hard and I’m gun shy after years of not really fitting in. It’s incredibly difficult to be a social person who is antisocial at only one aspect of life.It's also worth noting that this is the 6th move in less than 11 years, so I really should be better at this. 

It’s not for lack of trying, though, I actually joined the spouse Facebook page before arriving so that I could learn more about the area.

Then the messages started.

Here the lead spouse calls herself the “spouse mentor” and she wrote to tell me that she needed my address because we’re technically in a hurricane zone. (Um… I am from Florida. I know it’s quite possible for a hurricane to hit this base, but it’s highly unlikely for a real one, not just the leftovers, to hit here.) I stopped myself from making the joke that I made 8 years ago about how I throw a great hurricane party, because that did not go over well the first time.

Another spouse sent me a message that she is my “spouse sponsor” (I have honestly never heard of a “spouse sponsor”. Active duty members often get sponsors at new bases, but it’s optional and it doesn’t really have anything to do with the spouse). She has messaged me 3 times in the past 2 weeks asking when as good time to “drop by and chat” would be. I wasn’t even here for one of those weeks and the other week, I was unpacking.

I also got 5 new friend requests on Facebook… But I haven’t met any of these people, yet. I guess I kind of asked for it by joining the page and I’m sure they mean well, but I only add people who I actually know.

The rational side of me knows that this is not the same as the base 4 years ago… But my gut says to proceed with caution because you never know. Eventually, my need to be social will win out and I’ll go to an event, though. Starting over (again) is always hard, but if nothing else, it will give me a reason to write.