Kathleen's Blog

“The House that Built Me” – It’s a song by Miranda Lambert. She might as well be singing about life on the Moon. Visit a house you grew up in? One, single house? Only One? One?

When people ask where I am from, it’s sometimes easier to say “Everywhere.” How else is a Military Brat supposed to answer that question? It’s a conversation, not a one word answer… Like many military brats who moved around a lot as a child, I have that familiar feeling of being from nowhere in particular.

I tell everyone I’m from Texas, which for the most part is true. My parents are still there and I graduated from High School and College there. Looking back at my journey through multiple states and countries, I can’t believe that was my life. What a lucky kid I was. At the time, I didn’t quite understand what was going on. I was along for the ride and I didn’t know life worked any other way.

By the time we moved to Texas, where I started the 8th grade and Daddy ultimately retired from the Navy, I had lived outside of the US for more years than inside the US. I had been the “new kid” in at least 8 different schools. I had lived in at least 10 different houses, a few Navy Lodges, and I am sure we didn’t live in any one house longer than 2 years.

It’s a unique experience, growing up in the military and/or overseas. It’s just that for some of us, those experiences exclude a place of belonging, a place of being “from” somewhere.

But ultimately, where am I from? It depends on the day, depends on the person asking, and depends on the mood I am in. Mostly it’s not a question that can’t really be answered. But I do know that I’d have to make more than ONE stop to visit the house that built me.

And that is okay. 🙂

Love, me