Tricare, you caught us.
When we met our spouses days, weeks, months, and yes, even years ago, we had one thing on our mind. Those sweet, sweet benefits of military life.
As we dated long distance for 4 years, I knew I didn’t need to spend time with him to know that it was meant to be.
That career that I was working so hard towards in college? Whatever.
Leaving my dream city to move to the middle of nowhere? Sign me up!
The thrill of packing all of my belongings in boxes every 2 years, reinventing my career, and spending time apart from the one I loved, all better than Tricare. Yep, I said it.
Sorry Tricare, you’re great and all, but for myself and our NGMS Happy Hour group, there are lots of reasons why we married our service members and none of them were to spend hours on-hold trying to get a same-day appointment.
25 Reasons Why We Married Our Service Members: Alternative Facts Edition
I married my service member because…
1. Tricare, duh. I mean it’s totally easy to understand and everything.
2. See the world they said; never leave Virginia, I say.
3. I have an excuse to clean my closet every 3 years. I swear that I will be a minimalist at the NEXT duty station.
4. I love buying new furniture because the movers broke our old furniture. Again. Or packed your glassware with rocks. Regardless, Ikea here we come!
5. To justify my addiction to my iPhone.
6. Variety is the spice of life and my resume can prove it. Every move requires a new explanation of your career rollercoaster…er path.
7. For the alone time. “I promise to love you in sickness and in health, except for every TDY, deployment, training….”
8. I hate shaving my legs.
9. I’ve always wanted to star in my own episode of “Chopped, Holy Shit the Pantry Is Full and We’re Moving Next Week” edition.
10. Having lifelong bonds with your neighbors is so overrated.
11. Green is my favorite color. Especially in socks.
12. I love the sound of velcro in the wee hours of the morning.
13. I’ve always wanted to frantically search for a fluorescent yellow PT belt at 5 a.m. It’s bright yellow. Why can’t you find it?
14. I especially love tripping over boots.
15. Moving every 3 years is my favorite.
16. I’ve always wanted to have kids that doubled as travel souvenirs. “Well my first was born in Texas, my second in Germany…”
17. Who doesn’t like doing math to figure out what time businesses open and close?
18. He loves to wash ALL of my delicate blouses with his uniform (and multiple colored pens left in said uniform). Velcro, amirite?
19. I enjoy hoarding different furniture, curtains and artwork that don’t fit in this house, but might work 3 houses from now.
20. I wanted to pick up a foreign language built on phonetic acronyms. Roger, I’ll BOLO for your BCGs and those orders to my dream duty station.
21. I LOVE solo parenting.
22. “Hurry up and wait” is music to my ears.
23. I always dreamed of spending birthdays, anniversaries and holidays away from my spouse.
24. That dress uniform.
25. Love. At the end of the day we fell in love with a person that happened to be a service member, and that is truly why we said “I do.” (It’s also the only reason on this list that is NOT an alternative fact.)
