“Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.” The saying that most military spouses operate off of daily. The truth is sometimes we mentally can’t allow ourselves to even think about what the worst could be – let alone prepare for it without getting emotionally overwhelmed.
It’s scary to think about what might happen when all you’re trying to do is survive each moment and celebrate the time you do have together before your partner is sent back out in harm’s way.
We have those same fears too, but we also know our strength is in community and the last thing you want to have to worry about when things start heading south is who you can reach out to for help.
Find your people
Our biggest piece of advice for milsos is to find community and find it fast. Use the adrenaline from your most recent PCS to put yourself out there and make a few contacts whether it’s with civilian neighbors, milsos living on post next to you or the sweet ladies in the Bible study group at your new church down the street. Find ways to find people, because if there’s one thing we’ve learned in our years of doing milso life it’s that you’re going to get thrown a few wrenches and you’re going to need help to handle them.
Yes, you have friends from previous assignments. That’s great!
You might even have family that’s extremely supportive. Also, great!
But there’s only so much tangible support those relationships can offer you from afar, and while we all love a bestie or family member who wouldn’t hesitate to hop on a flight with no questions asked to come help, some emergencies won’t allow you to wait for them to get there.
It’s important to build out a network of loving, supportive people near and far. If you’re struggling to make local connections wherever the military has sent you, check out THIS post for more tips and advice on meeting new people.
Emergency military contacts to have on hand:
Slide through each branch and screen shot the image that applies to you.
It is our biggest hope that anyone should ever have to utilize these contacts for an emergency situation but we are grateful that the military has people in place should any of us find ourselves in a place where we would need them.
