A Perfect Delicacy

This article was sent to us by Hannah M., a 12th grader stationed in Pennsylvania. Do you have a story to share with your fellow military teens? Visit our writing page to find out how you can submit to Bloom!

There is such a perfect delicacy in how kids that grew up in the military see their own lives.

How they remember life in duty stations, not years.

How places hold memories that sometimes you forget about.

How driving past an old elementary school can mean very little to someone else,

but for you it means that there’s a sense of familiarity again.

How summer birthdays can turn into move-in day and

How winter birthdays can turn into finding out

where the next three years of your life will settle.

The uncertainty of not knowing if you’ll ever settle down,

or if you want to.

Because at least there’s a connection

to the comfort of never living in the same place for too long.

Of being able to change into who you want to be every two years

and live your best life as yourself.

How if you meet another kid who grew up in the same situation,

you instantly click as if you’ve known each other your whole life.

You grew up on homecomings and ID checks,

you grew up with such a vast community to turn to people exactly like you.

And there’s such a perfect delicacy to knowing that you got to live your life in a million different places as one person.