Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Thanksgiving Countdown, Day 11: Hugs All Around!

I think sometimes I get a bit carried away, especially on Veteran's Day. A a wife, daughter, granddaughter, daughter-in-law, granddaughter-in-law, and sister-in-law of military veterans, I have a lot of military pride.

Living the military lifestyle is certainly not always easy. I've had to learn to live for long periods of time without my husband. I've seen friends lose their sweethearts. I've made good friends, only to move away from them after a few years. I've watched my husband go through awful things because of his job, and I've often wished for a different lifestyle.

That being said, I'm very proud to be connected to so many brave servicemen. I consider them heroes, and anyone who says differently had better not say it to my face.

I probably wouldn't fight them or anything, but I would give them one heckuva death glare.

So sometimes I get carried away talking about the military life, and it comes across as bragging, or "I have it harder than you do." Yes, being a milspouse is hard, but every life comes with its challenges. I don't ever mean to say that we have it worse than everyone else, or that my husband has more value than other husbands because of his job. I know that everyone is dealing with hard things. Everyone has things they wish they could change about their lifestyle. And everyone has value.

So while I'm incredibly grateful to all of our veterans, especially my sweetie, I'm not going to talk about them any more today. I've said my two cents. I've probably said a whole quarter's worth. Everyone who knows me knows that I'm proud to come from a long line of veterans. So we'll move on.

I'm grateful for people who try to understand me, even when I'm sticking my foot in my mouth.

I appreciate people who give me the benefit of the doubt, and assume the best.

I know that there are way too many times when I speak before thinking. I'm a word-vomit kind of girl. I've gotten a little better at holding my tongue than I was when I was growing up, but I still tend to talk before I've really thought things through.

So my foot spends a lot of time in my mouth. It has a summer home there.

That's why I'm so thankful for people who realize that I don't ever mean to offend. I'm grateful for the ones who can laugh it off, and say, "You nerd. Do you realize how that sounded?"

To be fair, I also spend a lot of time thinking about just that. Did I say something stupid? How did that come across? Was I offensive somehow? Could I be misconstrued?

I seriously worry about offending people. You'd think that would stop me from speaking in the first place, but it never occurs to me to run things through my head until after I've said them.

So, the moral of the story is, be grateful for the people in your life who cut you slack. I know I'm grateful for all the people who put up with me. They all deserve hugs. As do our veterans!

Hugs all around!



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