Giving and giving and giving
Since Obi-Wan has been on this ship (over 2 years now), it’s been challenging to say the least. For the first year, he was gone on average two weeks out of every month and that coupled with some seriously crappy duty schedules, it effectively ruined any chance of making any kind of plans even for dinner on a weekend with people.
Things calmed down a bit for awhile but lately they have been ramping up again. Recently, there have been rumors floating around that I can’t get into but just make me nuts. I feel like we spouses just give and give and give and the Navy takes and takes and takes. How much more can we be expected to give when we feel like we give everything. We sacrifice time with family, friends, each other and then the Navy says “no, you’re not finished yet. We need more from you.” Seriously, when is enough enough? And it completely pisses me off when some higher up says “oh, the families are so important to us and we want to make every effort to improve the quality of life for our sailors and their families. But then there is some evil puppet master even higher up that pulls the string and comes up with b.s. reasons to make life even harder. Most of us spouses understand that things won’t be easy, sacrifices will have to be made, but where does that line get drawn? Oh, it doesn’t. We are the property of the U.S. Government until our spouses get out.
I’d like to think that in almost 12 years of marriage I’ve toughened up, become as flexible as one can be without being made of rubber, and still, I’m surprised by the sacrifices that we are asked to make.
