Business Insider has published an adapted excerpt from Heather Sweeney’s upcoming book, Camouflage: How I Emerged from the Shadows of a Military Marriage.
If military spouses could compile a list of things not to say to a military spouse, one of those taboo sentences would be “You knew what you were getting into.”
It’s impossible to comprehend and foresee military life until you’re in the thick of it. You can read the books. You can watch the news. You can absorb the tales of those who have done it. But knowing the logistics of what you’re getting into when your spouse becomes a service member is far different from knowing how you’re going to react to it, knowing to what degree those logistics are going to upend your life, his life, your family’s life. Even military brats who grow up to marry service members must learn for themselves how to navigate the lifestyle as a spouse, as a parent, instead of as a child.