I remember... until I don't. Until life on fast forward gets away from me, and it's lunch before I look down and realize that I didn't remember. That I didn't see this day coming. That my time away from a community so deeply saturated in military culture has given me a taste of what the world looks like to everyone else.
Except that I don't really live in that world. Deployments still happen with a regularity that others can't comprehend. And every time I hear the news, I am so thankful that Chris's parents didn't teach him Ukrainian - something that used to disappoint me. Now, now I'm thankful because while he may not always be home, I at least know where he is. Most of the time. I think.
It's startling to me how different my life is than it was three years ago, thirteen years ago, and in so many ways the same. How different the world itself is, and still the same. New hopes, and dreams, and fears take hold while the old ones linger, always there, never completely fading away.
I remember, because how can I ever really forget.
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