It is strange, really. I started this thread to share pictures of the palace. It is a beautiful place (if you mind block the cubicles) and it is a benefit of the job that I get to visit places like this. Also, the day I had pictures ready to post, was one of those days, when you never feel like you are going to go home (right after my daughter's graduation). Which is the two sides of the thread -- what I have missed and the palace. Now I am about 10-15 days out (yesterday it was 5 - 10 days, but these things change
) and I don't think so much about what I have missed, but what I have learned.
The military isn't for everyone, but it has made me who I am today. I am fairly comfortable with myself as a person and where I am at in life. I have been to many places in Europe, South America and Japan. And many of my contemporaries from high school have never left the state. My first boyfriend, I found out at my last high school reunion, is the school janitor. Not a bad life, but I wanted to get out and see things. And that I have. Now, as my husband and I approach actual retirement, not just military to civilian transition, I am working on convincing him that my home town, in the great white north, will be an excellent retirement epicenter (at least for us!) in 10 - 15 years.
There are many jobs that take people away from their loved ones and put people in harm's way. I just happen to be on this awesome forum and needed a place to vent! My family (sisters, brothers, etc) aren't sympathetic, as my nephew, with three growing boys, was just here for eight months. Unfortunately, most of the people I work with are here for 15 months. So five months isn't bad, in that perspective!
So again, thank you, YT members one and all, for your thoughts and for your prayers.
Janelle