I say this every time, but I have a ton of blogs to catch up on (read: photos to edit), and I’m in the process of doing that. But I really wanted to write about what I’ve been thinking about lately, and that is, how VERY lucky we are to be stationed at Luke right now.
There have been times in our past where neither one of us has liked the military lifestyle much. It’s hard to pick up and move a lot and not be able to plant deep roots anywhere, although I have grown to love this more transient lifestyle. I thought that during our time here at Luke, I’d kind of be on my own, as far as friends go. Being stationed overseas, you have this built in support system and an immediate group of friends since everyone is “stuck” overseas together. I thought when we moved here, everyone would kind of being doing their own thing. More people have jobs, we live in different cities around base, everything here isn’t completely tied to the base as people have their own lives and don’t really need the base for anything.
I have been very pleasantly surprised though, about how close I feel to some of my friends here. We were stationed in OK a few years ago with some good friends. We lived a few doors down from them there, and now we live in the same neighborhood as them here, and we go to the same church. So we see them at least once a week, if not more, and they are truly great people and we love spending time with them. Another couple that we were friends with in OK just moved here also, and they have introduced us to a bunch of their friends from SC that are now here also. I’ve met 4-5 girls in the squadron that I REALLY like, and one in particular, I feel like I have a special connection with. Not to get all “kindred spirits-ish” on you, but she was one of those people where the first time I met her, I just instantly liked her and felt very comfortable around her, and my admiration of her has only grown stronger as we spend more time together. And we have a few similar interests, so it’s fun to be able to talk about that stuff with her too.
I’m on a crud team now, and there are quite a few people on the team that I really enjoy being around and we have a lot of fun getting together for practices. A couple of the people I mentioned above and I have decided to get together a book club every other month so we’re going to start off by reading “The Book Thief”. I’m having one of those girls over for dinner two nights this week since her husband is TDY and then a group of us are going out on Friday night for dinner and a movie. I’m hosting a squadron coffee here in a week and a half and so far there are about 15 people signed up to do that. Another friend and I are going to join a bible study group at our church and a few friends and I are going to an OSC event later this month too. And that’s just in the next few weeks! At the last minute, I asked a few friends if they wanted to come over to celebrate New Years Eve with us and we had 4 other couples over for dinner and to play games. I love to entertain and it was a lot of fun to get to know people in a more “intimate” setting.
There are a few couples in the squadron that Mark and I really like and we’re hoping to get to spend some more time with them. We went to dinner with one of them Saturday night and we had a really great time. I think both Mark and I feel like we’re really lucky to be surrounded by such great people and to have so many nice friends.
The military definitely has it’s disadvantages at times, but I am so, so thankful for the people we’ve met during Mark’s time in the military. We’re at the point in his career where you almost always know at least one person when you move to a new place, and there are always friends of friends nearby. I’m really looking forward to getting to know some of these people better!
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. – Marcel Proust
