Monday, March 21, 2011

Military Life...From a Spouse's Perspective - Sara Rubendall

The Military Brat Team and the Homefront Team are combining efforts to share our experiences with the military lifestyle so that others can fully understand the sense of community, sacrifices, benefits, and expectations we all share as members of a truly unique group of people. Each month we will feature a story shared by a Military Brat Team member, and a story shared by a Homefront Team member.

  This Feature is written by Sara Rubendall of  
Sara Rubendall Design Studio.  Here's her story:

Military Life….
From a spouse’s perspective
This photo is of us when I was modeling as Barbie like forever ago 
     I never in a million years thought I would be a Navy wife. Never. I met my husband when we were in college and shortly after we started dating he told me he had joined the Navy. I was absolutely devastated. The word Navy to me meant that I would never see him. I was a hot mess when he left for bootcamp and I cried until there were no more tears to cry. I thought at the time that nothing good would come of this, but boy was I wrong.
      We got married when he took leave from A-school in December of 2004. I was still unsure of this whole Navy thing because we were still apart and I dreamed of the time when we could finally be together. In April I rode a bus down to St. Mary's Georgia where my husband was stationed on his first boat. I was in heaven.  I am from a small town in Illinois and to say I hadn't been much of anywhere was an understatement. Now here I was in Georgia where I never thought I would be. Heck, this was the first time I had even seen the ocean! The Navy was turning out to be not so bad after all!

I won "first kiss"
     After I survived my first deployment we were transferred to Washington and I was pretty excited. We packed up our stuff and got driving. Once we got to Washington my mouth hung wide open. Never had I seen a mountain either. It was amazing and absolutely beautiful.


     In my experience as a Navy wife I will say that I have gotten to see and do some pretty cool things. How many people can say that they have been on a submarine? I am so lucky to have had these experiences and I thank the Navy for every last one of them :)

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Thanks Sara! If you would like to submit a story for this series please contact us ("Contact" tab at the top of the blog) for consideration.

Robin Norgren, Blog Coordinator

1 comment:

LilacAve said...

Sara- I too am a submariners wife. And I say almost the same thing. I have gotten to live in Hawaii, Washington, Virginia, and Georgia. We find ourselves to be adventurous, and to REALLY not take family moments for granted. So is it hard? YES....but to me, the sense of community, and this unusual life, is a frustratingly beautiful thing. It certainly isn't boring.