Mom. Wife. Military Life.

I could start in so many places with the things we have done and places we have gone since arriving on the island, honestly we have done more here in a month then we did compiled over a near 5 year time window in Oklahoma. We have seen beaches, ate authentic cuisine, learned how to politely nod our way through conversation (even though we have no idea what they are saying) only to end with a botched version of “arigatou gozaimasu”, we have been introduced to the daiso (think target dollar section, but EVERYTHING for your life…Eve.Ry.Thing.), managed to convert our American dollar to yen by going back to basic elementary rules of moving decimals around…. the list goes on and on.

I was driving home from being out with the kids running “errands” (I use that term loosely considering the sea wall and local farmers market hardly seem like chores) and found myself already thinking about how sad I am to leave… I know we just got here but Japan, for me, it was love at first sight. It was an arranged marriage of sorts considering I have no say as to where we would end up, my mistress (The Air Force) gets to choose that. The fact that I had any sort of animosity or sadness towards  this move seems like such a waste of time… I started feeling guilty for ever feeling that way. The moment we landed here and got off the airplane my whole perspective changed. This place has never had to grow on me, it never had to coax me to like it, it was intended to humble my perspective on thinking I know what I wanted and where I wanted to be in life. I had a narrow vision of thinking and used the word “never” definitively… joke was on me.

I don’t mean to make it sound like everything is absolutely perfect and put on this fake facade of eternal happiness, but it’s pretty damn close. This past year has been a whirlwind of emotions… as a family we rounded out Jason’s 2nd deployment, celebrated a first birthday, sent Jason off again for a month, found out we were moving to Japan, found out we might not be moving to Japan, I got published, Everly started school, we actually did move, and you can throw the a million other birthdays/anniversaries/engagements/babies…. it was an eventful year. A year that I found some of my highest highs and also some of my lowest lows… lows, that since being here, seem like a distant memory. The second I looked out to the ocean here I made the conscious decision to throw all of my fears and preconceived notions about what I thought this adventure was going to be like, into the deep blue abyss.

I only have 2 years and 11 months left and I plan to learn, love and grow every step of the way. I want to be fearless in my pursuit of life here, I want to explore the things I always said “never” to and prove to myself that I am the only one setting limitations on my life. We are rounding out this year with new friends, a new home, and a new perspective. Thank you 2016, but we have 2017 to conquer.