Living the Life

So as some of you know and now more of you will, I am a member of the military and have been for the past few years.

This of course isn't very remarkable and much of my job is very dull and monotonous.

However one interesting thing has happened in the course of my service: I now sympathize with certain TV shows much more than I did previously.

As a kid I always wondered when in the Star Trek films and shows they changed their uniforms. To me it never made sense, what was wrong with the old uniforms?

Now as an adult having served in the military and seen the numerous and frequent changes in uniform I completely understand the mayhem of something as simple as a uniform and what a pain it is for those of us that wear it when it is decided to change the bloody things!

Something else happened today that surprised me.

I am the oldest of five children.

My two full siblings are four and seven years younger than me and my two youngest siblings are sixteen years my junior.

When my mother died at age fifteen I went from a teenager to a parent as my dad had to work and my sisters needed to be taken care of. My childhood was cut short very abruptly as I suddenly found myself as the primary caretaker of my two sisters while my dad struggled to earn enough to get by and cope with the death of his beloved wife.

Then a few years later my father found a new love, bringing my two youngest siblings into the family.

Almost immediately I became one of the primary caregivers of these two little ones and for eight years I was in effect one of their parents, they even called me daddy at first, not realizing that my dad was also theirs rather than their grandfather like they thought.

Then I joined the military and have been gone now for over four years.

I don't mind the distance, and honestly am glad that I escaped from the responsibility of  caring for children who weren't my own.

However I received an email from my little sister today with a very simple question: 'When are you coming home?'

She just had her birthday and will be starting middle school soon, and I had to tell this little girl who thinks of me like a father and brother both that I didn't know when I was coming home.

I was heartbroken, and that surprised me.