But what is a MilSO?! Why are they so important?! Do they even exist?! - the normal questions someone who is not dating/married to a military man or woman. Hell, I didn't even really know this was a real group of people until a few months ago and I've been an army girlfriend for almost three years now! A milSO is a military significant other; they can be a girlfriend, boyfriend, fiance, husband or wife.
But why are they so special?! So different from regular relationships?! Military couples, in my opinion, are the strongest couples around. It a hard journey to walk together which is why I feel the divorce/breakup rate in the military is so much higher than civilian couples. I of course can only speak for myself, but I've been with Danny almost three years now and I can honestly say its been the happiest, saddest, stressful, amazing three years I've ever had. We've had a long distance relationship since we started dating and that only adds to the stress. But as a soldier, he goes where the army sends him; where ever that may be, no questions asked. We faced a deployment and an injury during that deployment. We've survived my really bad car accident - one that even the doctors say I was fortunate to survive. (Side note: this is what they told Danny too after the accident. You know us though. We're some fighters.) We've dealt and are still dealing with an illness of mine that doctor's have yet to diagnose. And to top it off, we're currently facing our second deployment. And while we're being honest, it sucks to have to face this all alone.
This is where milSOs come into play! In this place of sadness and crazy happiness and insane emotional roller-coaster, I constantly feel like no one understands where I'm coming from. And usually they don't. I live no where near an Army post or Marine base or Air Force base or Navy base. I live smack-dab in the middle of thousands of college students whose only care in the world is whether or not they have a date Friday night or a group to go downtown with on Thursday. They should worry about those things at this point in their lives. But, that's not my life. My life is centered around whether my boyfriend is safe today, if he's alive, if he's survive the attack I've been hearing about on the news, if he was involved in that attack, when he's coming home, etc. This is my life and my friends don't understand this because they don't have to live it. However, my wonderful friends who are in military relationships, my milSOs, they always understand where I'm coming from and usually have kick @ss advice about how to handle every situation. They are amazing. Hands down.
Thinking back at things, I have no earthly idea what I did or how I survived Danny's first deployment or his injury without these ladies. Granted, being in a military relationship stateside is still hard, but deployments are even harder because I'm not allowed to call him whenever I want or text him or, especially this time, skype with him, and let's not forget the constant danger and fighting. The point is, now that I've made these friendships, I'm probably a lot more sane that I would be; especially this deployment where Danny and I don't get to talk as much.
Every time I have a question concerning Army things or need crafty, care package ideas, these are the ladies I turn to and they've always been more than willing to help a sister out! It takes a strong man to stand up and fight for his country, but I'm a firm believer that it takes a helluva strong woman to love him, to stand by him through health and injury (seen and unseen), to keep the house and family and everything else running smoothly and normally as it does when he's home. And that's what we do! We stand strong so our men can stand stronger! But we can only stand strong with support from one another!This really is a sisterhood. A tiny little gang that not everyone is able to join.
Until Next Time - stay safe, stay strong, keep your head up and keep pressing on
-V-
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