Take a look around

Around these walls that confine and release us

Around where you have forever known

Around where you have never gone

 

Take a moment

To leave your seat

To jump into my shoes

To walk the militaristic ground I know

 

Take my story

 

I never knew what a friend was...

Until the late age of twelve

Not because I was different

But because I had orders

 

Orders that moved me

Grounded me

Destroyed me

Made me

 

They say being a military child has its rewards

I learned to obey orders

I learned to live without my father

I learned to deal with the pain associated with leaving

 

I learned to be resilient

 

I went on a fourteen year journey

 

Across the seas

Across the barren desert

Across the frosty tundra

Across the country

 

...but nowhere I journeyed to was ‘home’

 

I have met the person you want to be

I knew the person you had to be

I made the person you will never be

 

Each place a checkpoint on my endeavor

Each person never forgotten because it was ‘best friends forever’

Each story something that won’t happen again ever

 

Tell me the last time you went to a military base

To watch your parent return from a drug bust

Waving upon arrival

To watch your parent leave to the Bering Sea

Waving upon departure

 

Tell me the last time you went to a military base

To run through the halls of the Chief's Mess

Playing with the pool table and rope knots on the walls

To help make shadow boxes and vinyl signs in the workshop

Spending time with your dad and inventing a contraption to hang in your bedroom

 

My reality was other people’s fantasy

‘I wish I could leave this town’

‘Why would you move to a place like this?’

‘I am leaving this place as soon as possible’

 

My fantasy was what they had

Life long friends

Same people

...somewhere called ‘home’

 

For years

I spent my time wishing I had opportunities like them

For years

I was ashamed that I had to move all the time

For years

I never embraced the true gift I was given

 

I can adapt to new environments quick

So if I leave, I will never get homesick

I can take on any challenge or adversity

Because my mind has its own diversity

I can relate to more than myself

Since I believe every person is more than another book on a shelf

 

Take a look around

Around these walls that confine and release us

Around where you have forever known

Around where you have been for the last few minutes with me

 

Take a moment

To return to your seat

To lace your shoes

To walk the unblazed path for yourself

Make your story