We knew towards the end of last year that a change of duty station was on the horizon. We also knew that we'd have to wait to find out if K was on the promotion list before he could request a specific duty station. The plan was to wait until the list was released and then speak to the monitor about being sent back to Southern California. Camp Pendleton or MCAS Miramar, it didn't matter as long as we ended up in the San Diego area.
Fortunately for K, December brought the release of the promotion list containing his name. Unfortunately for us, the pending promotion ruled out any jobs in Southern California. Given the choice between moving to Okinawa or North Carolina, we opted for Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, NC.
This choice was not an easy one for us to make. I'm a suburban girl at heart and three years is a long time for someone like me to reside in rural North Carolina. K was stationed here for Engineer School 8 years ago and Jacksonville was an awfully depressing place to visit. It's grown quite a bit since those days, but at heart remains a small town near a military base.
I'm a firm believer that life is indeed what you make of it. I could easily let Jacksonville bring me down, but going forward I'm making a conscious effort to stay content in order to make a happy home for our children.
Whether I'm capable of staying content remains to be seen.
