It was a muggy, and extremely breezy day, in Jacksonville, North Carolina. I could feel the tears filling my eyes as I stood outside of my father’s unit, like I had done countless times before. Often I was just waiting for him to grab something he failed to bring home. But today was different, he hadn’t left anything in his office, no this was his deployment send off. Standing there, I could feel the tears trying to run down my face, I told my father goodbye for a while. He embraced me and said time would fly by fast and that he would be home soon. As I watched him board the bus, I could barely hold the tears back, this wasn't the first time he had deployed, but this would be the longest period he had not been home for. Being raised in a military environment required me to mature at a much swifter pace, but it also enabled me to pursue one-of-a-kind opportunities, …show more content…
This meant my mother was in charge of the house and was obligated to undertake the duties of a normal mother as well as the tasks usually left for a father to do, like to conduct the care of the vehicles, cut the grass, establish rules, and haul the children to their sports games. The outcome of this was my mother often overworked and tired at the end of the day. This obligated me to accept care of myself at a younger age as my mother did not always have the time to help me when she was hard-pressed for time or preoccupied with something important. At times I would also be told, to help my sister cook or do homework, as my mother did not have the time to accomplish all her work , while also helping us, this was especially the case as I grew older, and started helping with the grass and vehicles as well. This helped me build more responsibility and accountability as I knew my mother or sister was counting on me to help them get a task