The following essay is the second place winner of our 2026 Month of the Military Child Writing Contest. The theme was "The Beauty of the Military Child Experience." Congratulations to Hayden M., a high school junior! If you were to walk into any school hallway or public space, you could hear someone making the assumption that they know everything they could know about the world. They assume they know the way the culture ebbs and flows within the people of a place they have ne

There’s a popular trend on most social media platforms, based on the concept of “lost faces”, having memories of loved ones but being unable to remember their faces. I never thought about it twice, because I always assumed I was exempt. While trying to work through my amazing writer's block, I searched through my memories for something of relevance. The most I could remember were snapshots of specific places in my mind. The more I thought, the more I could remember. One pic

This article is part of the Bloom Spotlight series, where we aim to recognize current and former military teens who are doing amazing things. If you know a current or former military teen (regardless of age) who is impacting the military community in a way that deserves to be recognized, visit our Bloom Spotlight page . Leah Scarmeas is a senior in high school who is heavily involved and accomplished in pageantry. She holds the Miss South Carolina Teen USA title, achieved thr

Recently, I had a conversation with my friend about our last few months of high school. As we discussed the changes we would soon face and the last few months before graduation, she said something that resonated with me. She explained that she was having a hard time being in the present, knowing that soon her community would completely change. At that moment, I realized that what she said applied to me not only as a senior in high school, but also as a military child -- and t

Surely you've heard the saying "it's a small world." This phrase refers to the connections we make with other people as we go through our lives that overlap with someone new we have just met. It implies the interconnectedness of everyone living in this world, that the bonds we create with other people help us form new relationships, making the world seem a little smaller than before. Such instantaneous connections are possible in places and with people we may have never expec

This article was sent to us by Natalie S., a ninth grader stationed in Texas. Do you have a story to share with your fellow military...

The following are some famous veterans in our nation’s history, including ones that maybe you didn’t even know about! Dwight D....

We packed our lives in cardboard dreams, side by side, a roaming team. Through cities bright and towns unknown, you were the closest...

This article was sent to us by Natalie S., an eighth grader stationed in Texas. Do you have a story to share with your fellow military...

This article was sent to us by Natalie S., an eighth grader stationed in Texas. Do you have a story to share with your fellow military...

This article was sent to us by Natalie S., an eighth grader stationed in Texas. Do you have a story to share with your fellow military...

President’s Day is a holiday that passes every year, but how does it really apply to our lives as American military children? To me, the...

This article was sent to us by Natalie S., an eighth grader stationed in Texas. Do you have a story to share with your fellow military...

This article was sent to us by Natalie S., an eighth grader stationed in Texas. Do you have a story to share with your fellow military...

This article was sent to us by Natalie S., an eighth grader stationed in Texas. Do you have a story to share with your fellow military...

This article was sent to us by Natalie S., an eighth grader stationed in Texas. Do you have a story to share with your fellow military...

"There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind." — C.S. Lewis This quote hit me hard the first time I read it. It...

I’ve always been fascinated with the Red String Theory. As a kid, I imagined having a little red string tied around my finger, wrapping around the world and tangling in knots over places in my memory, eventually creating a loom where a tapestry keeps growing in length. The Red String Theory, a belief from East Asian mythology, believes that people who are destined to be present in each other’s lives are connected by a red string, and life will bring them to meet again despite

This summer, I had the opportunity to attend an American Legion Auxiliary Girls State program in Missouri. The program consisted of...

For high school seniors moving on to higher education, now is the time to apply for scholarships. Thousands of grants and endowments are...