A blog from Army&You’s autumn edition by Sarah Jacques
Being a military family conjures up a wealth of feelings; excitement, uncertainty, times of sadness, times of happiness, and a sense of commonality to those around us.
These feelings are not facts, but narratives that derive from individual, personal experience. I have over 10 years of knowledge and understanding of life as a military wife.
Over this time, I have watched my husband delicately balance the progress of his career alongside meeting the needs of our family, and this is no easy task.
Our priorities naturally shifted upon the arrival of our daughter. There was a need for me to take a step back to re-evaluate how I could navigate life not only as a wife and mother – but as a person in my own right. My husband had his career, and I wanted to maintain mine.
However, navigating this to find my sense of self within a military way of life tested every part of my emotional and physical strength. In the midst of both personal and professional challenges our resilience and strength has grown as a family.
We have immersed ourselves in military life, asked questions, used resources, and embraced the military community.
During the last three years I have enhanced myself and my career prospects, achieving a master’s degree and now doing a PhD, which is a dream come true! And it’s something I can do alongside being a mum, which will always be my most important job!
Imperatively, as parents we strive to be good role models for our daughter, and to promote understanding about military life which can at times be very tough.
But we find joy and fun in the small things – family walks in the beautiful countryside, access to a swimming pool, family events and visits to local beaches. Our daughter continues to surprise us every day with her own resilience and creativity, aspiring to one day fly helicopters.
Military life always presents options for learning, and what I have learnt is that I can live the life I want, counteract stresses and struggles with fun, and things may go wrong, but it will be ok!