Tuesday, November 11, 2014

BRAT Life

I started to write a really poignant post about being a military kid, but then I thought it would be a whole lot more fun to, well, have fun!

How to know you grew up as a military BRAT-

1. You can easily speak in acronyms.
2. Dad/Mom is not away on business, he/she is TDY.
3. You don't move, you PCS.
4. It is hardwired into you to write the date like this- day/month/year.
5. By 1st grade, you know how to tell military time.
6. You get irritated when people refer to your Dad/Mom's deployment as a "trip." Um. No.
7. You don't go to the grocery store, you go to the commissary.
8. Once you hit your teen years, you start noticing that some of the gate guards are super cute.
9. You know the last 4 of your sponsor's social.
10. When you ask your other military friends where they've come from you don't give the names of cities, you give the names of bases.
11. You often dread the obligatory "Where are you from?" question. Eventually you just start saying the name of the place you either liked the most or lived the longest.
12. People notice that you have a strange accent. That's because it's actually a combination of accents.
13. When other people are impressed with your Dad/Mom's uniform you are unimpressed...they're just work clothes.
14. You've attended enough promotion ceremonies that you can almost recite "the oath" on your own.
15. Family vacations are actually trips to visit extended relatives.
16. You become especially proud upon hearing The National Anthem.
17. You tear up when you see deploying troops at the airport. You acutely know how hard it is to say good-bye.
18. You might walk up to said troops and offer a tear-filled hug because you just know. When they look at you, they know too.
19. You didn't "live" anywhere. You were "stationed."
20. You know rank symbols.
21. When people ask you what your Dad/Mom does, you can't tell them because they can't tell you. But you know you're awfully proud!
22. You've celebrated any holiday, birthday, milestone at an odd time because celebrating together was more important than the actual date.

Any additions, fellow military brats?