Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The Distance of Family

If you asked a military brat what question they have been asked most in life there would be one resounding answer: where are you from? Our answer is never simple. Tthe majority of the world can provide an answer in one sentence. For a military brat, we'd need a few paragraphs.

It took me a while to determine my talk track . . . it came to me as I got older. I gave up trying to explain. Now it's a simple answer: I am a military brat. I'm from no where. I'm from everywhere.

I live in NJ. My mom and Dad live in FL. My brother and sister attend college in Oklahoma. The rest of my family (with a few exceptions) lives in Ireland. When it comes to my family there is so much distance, location wise that is.

Dan's family is located in NJ and NYC. He was born and raised in the same house. Every holiday his relatives all trek down to his parents house for some quality family time. For the past three years (that I've lived in NJ) I've been a part of that.

We all gathered again for Labor Day this past weekend. Hanging out, grilling, catching up. It's times like these that make me miss my family but at the same time feel grateful to have another family to hang out with.

I miss my family every day. Not just on holidays. On weekends, on Tuesday nites. Every day.