Just thinking...

I've been thinking about what it means to be a military wife a lot lately. And it seems to me that we don't get nearly enough credit for the things we do. Our husbands are the ones out there fighting for our freedom, yes, but it isn't exactly cake to be left here at home. We as military wives are peacemakers, troubleshooters, single mothers, temporary fathers, maids, cooks, and a slew of other not-so-fun adjectives. We spend holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries alone. We cry in silence, and put on a brave face for everyone to see. We teach ourselves to shop for one, and cook for one. We face our biggest fears that normally our husbands would protect us from. We have to tell our children that every single man in uniform is not daddy. Help them understand where he is, and why he's gone. Take care of bills, clean the house, go to work, and come home to an empty house. How many of our husbands would have made rank without us? I don't know about you, but I am my husband's voice of reason. When things go wrong within the batallion, and he wants to say things to his superiors that he shouldn't, I am the one to calm him down. I am the one to make him see that it's not worth it, and I am the one who listens patiently while he goes on a tangent about what he hates and what he loves about the Marine Corps. Because that's my job. I don't complain (very much) that my education has taken a back seat to his career, because one day I will get there. I don't complain that the only jobs I am qualified for are the ones that I hate. And I don't complain about how Junior Enlisted wives are treated by the Marine Corps. I know that the Corps doesn't want them to get married, and I know that they see pretty much all Junior Enlisted wives as uniform chasers, who only want the benefits that come with being a military wife. But that's not me. So I hold my head held high as I pull out my POA to take care of things on my husband's behalf. Because I get all the looks that usually accompany this seemingly simple act. I get talked down to, I have Marines trying to talk me out of things that I know need to be taken care of, and I get nasty stares as I ask for my husband's LES. But that's ok. Because I know that I love my husband more than life itself, and couldn't dream of doing anything to hurt him. But no one else needs to know that. They can keep thinking all the hateful things they want, because at the end of the day, I still come home to my husband, who thinks absolutely none of those things. My job is a Marine Corps wife. And as far as I'm concerned, that's the hardest job of them all.