Friends That Span Miles
Every time we gear up for another PCS (a move) we go through something that is both incredibly difficult, but insanely rewarding: leaving friends behind. Now, of course it is easy to focus on the part that is insanely difficult. You just spent the last few months, or even years, building these amazing relationships and now you have to say goodbye. It is never easy, and to be honest only get's harder as you begin to build deeper relationships and experience more life together. But let me explain why it is also such a blessing. We now have friends (not even counting family) in Washington DC, New York, Cleveland, California, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Mississippi, Texas, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Florida, various cities in Georgia and now GERMANY. I mean... woah. Not only do we meet other Air Force people that then move to other awesome places that we can call up when we are in town, but we also get to meet wonderful "token civilians" (thanks Bethany & Bradley for that one!) that hopefully stay put so we can go back and visit our old cities and visit with them! Sure it really sucks sometimes to not be able to call up Anna & Craig on a Tuesday at 5pm and invite them over for an impromptu dinner at 5:30 because we live in the same apartment complex, but if we had never left DC, we would have never met the group of lovely ladies pictured below.
The other great part of this entire situation is that our home is a forever revolving door of visitors, and I would not have it any other way. When we moved to Arkansas we got here on a Monday, moving truck came Tuesday (this will be the first and last time in our lives this happens so quickly btw) and that Friday night we had a couple, Christina & Jack, passing through traveling from Columbus, MS to Altus, Oaklahoma for training so they stayed with us. The very next night an Academy friend of Michael's, Mat,, and his gorgeous girlfriend, Maggie, were headed from Altus to Charleston and asked to stay with us as well! It was so much fun to have people in town our very first weekend in our home, and I just have to sit back and realize this would be a far less likely scenario outside the military world. (Ps don't worry, I did have time to wash and change the sheets before the 2nd round of house guests. We even swiffered.)
Moral of the story- we like people. And we like traveling. It just so happens that this Military life I resisted calling my own has facilitated both. Cheers to #FriendsThatSpanMiles.
