Audience Statement: This memoir was written for those children out there who grew up in the military, with the constant moving. forcibly making completely new friends and finding a new life everywhere that they were forced to move. Majority of the military children have experience almost the exact same thing that I did at a young age. I want it to be read by people who have a deployed parent who they are waiting on and know that they’ll be back. I hope that while reading this, people realize that they aren’t alone in these kinds of situations and that there are plenty of other people who went through the same thing they have. I think this memoir should also help inspire some people to stay positive in situations where they don’t know what the definite outcome will be.
Essay: Subway, Eat Fresh
At the age of 11 years old, I was a full on military child, overseas living in Germany, with my dad in the military and moving every three years. My family has been all over the world, from japan to Germany and even Alaska, it wasn’t until we arrived in Germany that my ad got deployed for the first time in my life. I didn’t understand when my mom first told me, at first it was just a “your dads going to be gone for work for a while”. In my 11-year-old mind, I thought he was just going to have to work more often, like go in earlier and stay later, I was wrong. I was very wrong.
I was told about my dad going to be gone for work about a month and a half before he actually left. The day I realized he was going to be gone for months on end was devastating, it was my third week of 4th grade and my mom came in to talk to my teacher. I thought nothing of it until I heard the words “her dads being deployed to Iraq, possibly for a year”. Now the day he left felt like a dream, I watched him pack for a couple weeks, slowly adding clothes and items to his pile. When the day came, I got taken out of school, we went home, put his stuff in the truck and drove to the airport on base. We sat down at the small airport subway and ate with him for the last time for the next 8 months. I was dreading the minute when the announcement would come on with his flight saying they are now boarding, it came on around 1:00 pm. My mom turned to my brother and I and softly said “say goodbye to your dad, he has to go”, I turned to my dad who was already standing with a bag on his shoulder and a suitcase in hand and my stomach dropped. It was that kind of feeling you get in your stomach when you go down a rollercoaster. I finally managed to say my goodbye and we all just sat there at subway until he entered a part of the airport where we could no longer see him. I could tell by the look on my mother’s face that she was holding back tears, that was the first time I clearly remember seeing my mom look that sad.
The house seemed so empty and quiet, my dad was the energy of the house, always making jokes, and doing something. About two weeks into him being gone, my mom came home from work with mail, “Mikayla you have mail from someone, come downstairs and open it”. Me and my brother didn’t usually get mail that often when we were younger so it was exciting for both of us. I rushed downstairs to find my mom standing in the kitchen holding a white envelope. When I got it opened I found two pages of notebook paper filled with writing, it was a letter from my dad explaining how he was doing and what was going on In Iraq. Receiving that letter was relieving, knowing that he was okay and still safe. Once a week for the next 8 months, me and my brother would both receive letters from my dad, I would get mine on Wednesdays and my brother would get his on Saturdays. My dad later explained “I sent your guys letters on different days so I could tell two different stories with a different look on my week and so you guys wouldn’t fight over who’s letter is who, although they do have your names on them”. Sometimes we would get boxes of stuff, he would buy movies there because they were cheaper there. He would buy me and my mom jewelry and got my brother toys.
After a long 8 months, the day he came back finally came around, I was completely unaware that he was coming back that day. My mom doesn’t normally pick me up from school, I usually would just take the bus home, but she picked me and my brother up and told us she was going to treat us to some food. We drove to the subway in the airport, both my brother and I thought nothing of it because it was the closest one. We went inside and up the escalator and stood in line to get our food. When we sat down we were simply talking about our days at school and what homework we might have to get done later that night. We sat there for about 20 minutes just talking and eating, then my mom stood up and walked a couple feet away from the table kind of just stood there. All of a sudden me and my brother just watch a random man sit down across the table from us and say “hi, how was school today?”, I looked at my mom wondering who this random man was. Then it hit me, my mom surprised us at subway with my dad coming home.
Reflection:
If I had the opportunity to go back and revise/edit this essay, I would definitely try to put In more details and feeling. I would try to make the writing emotionally attractive to readers so maybe they could relate more. I would keep my topic because It was an important part in my life, I would simply add more to give it more depth. I could have also made it longer that way I could contribute more to the essay itself, which goes along with the adding of details. I wanted this writing to be one that people would want to keep reading once they started. I don’t feel as if It is written well enough for people to want to continue reading it to the end.