BY: SIERRA SMALLS-GREER
(Gainesville, Ga.) – Oh, Valentine’s Day! For women, it is the single best holiday there is: your significant other has to get it together for a few hours and shower you with gifts that you wouldn’t otherwise get. For men on the other hand… it can be the most terrifying day on the calendar.
In the civilian world, it is all romance. But for Milso’s (MIlitary Significant Others) like me, February is a cringeworthy month, and I’m here to tell you about it.
For one thing, let’s just get this out in the open… If you are single and reading this thinking that you despise Valentines Day more… You are unbelievably wrong. There is absolutely nothing more disheartening than being with someone and not being able to actually be with them. You can suck it up and go on that blind date your sister wants you to go on or go out with your other single friends, but for us, our significant others are away, and we stay up to make candy grams for our 2.5 kids.
Sad enough yet?
Okay… it’s not that we hate Valentine’s Day, or any holiday, its just that it’s not the same for us as it is for everyone else with a normal nine to five job. Christmas could very well be in June, Valentine’s Day could be in October and what in the world is a summer spur of the moment getaway to Jamaica?
Oops that was just my dream…
But seriously. Even if he is here, we can’t just leave for vacation when we want to. If we did, it would be last extremely last minute, costly and unfortunately short.
So what is in it for us?
I hear so many girls that say, ”I have no idea how you’re with someone in the military,” or “That’s so depressing that you’re always alone.” To tell the truth, even in the saddest and loneliest holidays, I feel nothing but pride. We are willing to give up our spouses for a little while to protect you, me and this country.
The missed holidays are worth it when we get surprise homecomings. You see, we get to do something extremely rare… and that is fall in love over and over again with each reunion with our soldier.
And to top it all off, if we ever did take that last minute, dreamy summer getaway to Jamaica that I dreamed about… It’s discounted!
Leave a Reply