Military Monday

My newest idea for a series is, you guessed it, "Military Monday".  I've decided to start this particular series because my boyfriend recently decided to fill out an application for the Navy.  I'm very proud of him and I plan on supporting him in all of his future endeavors.  This decision though is a pretty big one that not only effects him but also me and his family.

I'll start by giving you a little background information on Kyle and I.  We met in 2009 in our first semester of college.  We were both in a theater group.  We started out as friends and by the end of our second semester and the play we were dating.  It's been three years now that we've been together and for two of those years we've lived together.  It's pretty serious.  I'm also pretty sure that we're going to be together for the long term, at least I hope so.

So here we are in 2013 and we're both a year away from graduating.  About a month ago we were both in the same boat.  Neither of us had a "real" direction for what we were doing after graduation next May, then a week later Kyle found his direction, the Navy.

At first it was for a teaching position in Charleston, SC.  It would have kept him there and there would have been no deployment, no active duty.  I liked that.  Plus we would live in South Carolina which seems like a pretty nice place.  He talked to a recruiter about this position and everything was hunky-dory, for like a day. He later found out that his GPA wasn't high enough for the teaching position but there were plenty of other careers in the Navy he could look at, the only "down side" being that they are all active duty positions and there will be deployments.  This news was upsetting but there was still the opportunity for me to go with him when I could.  I'll let you in on a little secret up until that point I didn't realize that to get the benefits of your significant other being in the military you have to be married.  That was lesson number one for me.  Marriage is a big deal and I never want to rush into it but now with that little nugget of information I think following him when possible will be tougher to do without being married.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to force him to marry me just so I can tag along and reap the benefits through his military career.  I'm a big girl, an adult in fact and I can take care of myself.  I do want to get married someday though.

I don't come from a military family and neither does Kyle so all of this is very new to me.  Kyle deciding to join the Navy was quite the surprise and I'm still unsure of how to deal with it.  Right now everything is still far away (kind of) and he's not officially in.  I'm still scared though.  From everything I've read so far military life isn't necessarily easy for the enlisted or their families but it is rewarding.  I know I have a lot to learn and I probably won't learn a lot of it until it actually happens but you can never be too prepared. Right?

So this has been the first "Military Monday".  I don't think all of them will read like this but I thought you all should know why I decided to start this series.  In a nutshell it's because I'm scared and I'm looking for advice but I also want to give advice to those who are looking for it.  For future "Military Mondays"  I'll probably include something new that I've learned about military life and occasionally updates on where Kyle is at in his prospective military career.

Hope you enjoyed the first installment. Happy Monday!