A blog about how applying to colleges is opening new doors for me and allowing me to choose my next path for myself.

As you’ve probably heard before and might experience yourself, military families generally get an “itch” to move once they hit that second or third summer. And, well, I never truly understood that. Maybe it’s because my family tended to move over the winter or spring, or maybe we just had spent an inconsistent amount of years in places, but I didn’t understand how someone could start feeling uncomfortable in the place they’ve been living-- how they longed for the restart int

Laying the American Legion Auxiliary wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 430,005 people lay dead beneath our feet. We are here to commemorate the one unknown. I stand with four others. From the steps, we watch the mechanical movements of the guard—the click of his heels, the measured steps, each movement precise and poised. He turns to face us. The silence deepens. He approaches. Each step he takes rings in my ears. My heart is beating out of my chest. To me, this is

Image 1 = me and my Raider team at Fort Knox. Image 2 = me and the academic team at Washington DC. Image 3 = me and the Raider team getting recognized at the Kansas State Capitol Building. Image 4 = me leading my company in the Veterans Day Parade. Let me start by saying – I LOVED my JROTC experience! Yet, it was very different than what both me and my parents were expecting, so here’s first information about what JROTC is for those who are curious about joining, followed by

The Air Force hosts an extremely diverse collection of planes, each specifically and uniquely designed to help our military succeed. Fighter jets highlight our speed and power, bombers represent strength and precision, and tankers enable success by providing fuel on the go. But, in my (biased) opinion, the most interesting is the C-130. I was always captivated by my parents’ stories, by the pride they had for their plane that provides aid to so many. From Bagram, Afghanistan

I recently came across a slam poetry assignment I had done in the 7th grade, and it made me realize just how much my attitude and perspective have changed surrounding being a military kid and everything that comes with that. Here I am standing still Under this summer sun I still feel a chill Here we go again Goodbye goodbye See you soon or never again Friends I have made over and over again One at a time they fade from memory over and over again Whoosh whoosh whoosh Across t

I never knew I could find a connection to other people like me. Then I found Bloom. My sister started first as a blog writer, then started The Bloom Room podcast with her other milteen friends. I was in 7th grade at the time, ignorant of many things in the world. I knew at the time my sister joined something related to being a military kid, but I never knew the impact this blog had on kids all over the world. As I grew older, I learned more about what my sister did by reading

They pull themselves into what they cannot see (Sea) pond, or river at all The celestial uncontrollable Which demands a Dance, this chaotic Impossible Request requires Perfection that cannot be achieved From the methodic pattern A flowing pace to Contradict, to meet The tides rising falling, Swing forward, and back Never the same stroke twice; And done again and again, The rhythm of a life Of one who doesn’t stand on stable Ground, new water is rushing and Restarts the stro

When I was about 8 years old, my family got stationed in Seoul, South Korea. As many moving stories go, my parents had been almost positive that we would be sent somewhere else, such as Florida. Even now, I can vividly remember looking at houses to buy there with my dad. As you can imagine, our orders came as a complete shock, but the two years we spent in Seoul were some of the richest and most interesting of my life. Even as a kid, I learned so much and immersed myself in a

The thing that everyone focuses on when you’re a military child, when meeting new people, is always the plethora of places you’ve likely lived—for myself, sprawled across a handful of countries across a handful of continents, I’m doubtlessly familiar with the details of how cool and interesting it was to get the opportunity to live abroad. But the adjective I hated the most was when they would say I was lucky. Off the bat, I don’t have any problem with the word luck; I’m luck

I grew up between time zones, measuring years in PCS, learning that “home” could be a mailbox I learned to stop checking. I became fluent in starting over, new hallways, new faces, new versions of me introduced like I had always been there. Now I’m eighteen, standing at the edge of something louder than moving trucks, where goodbyes don’t come with return dates and I can’t follow behind anymore. They call it becoming an adult, but I still carry every place I left like stamps

When you think of loss in a military aspect, most people think of veterans, war, and soldiers. But how about those who aren’t actively training for war or those who aren’t directly in military service? Most don’t think of military children as those who have experienced loss. But, loss isn’t always death. As a kid, I lost many things. Jackets, toys, et cetera. In a way, that’s still a loss. In the military sense, I have lost some things as well, but it is nowhere close to othe

This article was sent to us by Sabela M., an 8th grader Marine Brat stationed in Virginia. Do you have a story to share with your fellow military teens? Visit our guest contribution page to find out how you can submit to Bloom! Sabela and her mom when they went to Romania to get away from the sirens for a bit. When my parents told me we were being stationed in Israel, I didn’t really know much about it or what was in store for me. I just knew I felt sad, because it meant sayi

Around two months ago, I found out that I would be leaving my current station of almost three years and moving back to my previous station this summer. This would be my first move after my dad’s retirement, and this news excited me—the thought of returning to a place I was so in love with, leaving my small school, and getting to reunite with my friends again. However, I recently realized that this would be my last move before I go to college. Never before have I had my futur

There’s a strange kind of quiet that occurs with endings you’ve been expecting your whole life. Not a sudden ending — not the kind that interrupts or unravels quickly — but the kind that comes up on you slowly, almost like turning a page in a thick book. The kind that you grow up knowing will happen “one day” without ever actually knowing when that day is or what it will actually feel like when it arrives. My dad is retiring from the Marine Corps this year after 25 years of s

In a life with so much change, so much inconsistency from year to year, living on base has been my rock. From year zero to fifteen, I always knew that, no matter what, I could come back to base at the end of a long day, safe from any problems in the outside world. Living on base was my ultimate refuge, the only constant between each new duty station. No matter how new or uncomfortable the outside world looked from year to year, I always had the Commissary, my favorite Freedo

Currently, as a teenage girl living in the suburban Midwest, my life is stereotypically boring. I live in what one may argue is a copy-and-paste suburban house, go to my local public high school, play a sport, and am part of the school musical. My daily routine doesn’t really vary; besides the occasional plans with my friends and family vacations, my life is calmly repetitive. If you look at the definition of boredom itself, then my current situation can undoubtedly be deem

Being a Navy kid, I’ve been around or in water close to my entire life. My family was commonly found strolling across the beach in Coronado, or visiting the Ballard Locks while living in Seattle, and there was hardly a Friday afternoon while living in Singapore where we didn’t go to the pool after school. What's weird, though, is that I am most definitely a homebody who loves to crack open a nice new book. Rather than being outdoorsy, I'm "outdoorsy- ish ." When it's nice out

There is a proverb that states, "When one door closes, another opens." This may seem like a simple saying, but it has a much deeper meaning than many people imply. Growing up, my parents always made sure I was being active and doing something with a team. I did soccer, dance, and gymnastics as a kid. I ended up not loving soccer and quit altogether. When I was about eight years old, my parents had me make my first big decision that I can remember. I had to choose between dan