Military families are very common in the area, including here at Annandale. Some of our own students have family members employed in the military and are subjected to moving around or seeing them leave regularly. 

Those who are involved with the military are relocated very often and their children will enroll in a lot of different schools. The average military child will move six to nine times in their school career, which is three times more than a non-military child. This makes the child subjected to constantly being one of the new students around school quite regularly

“With me, I think it was six or seven times,” Junior Mark Scrivener said. However, for others, it may be even more. 

Many military kids can say they have gone some time without seeing their family members; however, they can name certain positive aspects to it. “I think up to ten months, almost a year,” Junior Olivia Alexander said, “It’s cool because you get to travel the world and see a whole bunch of places and meet different people.”

Non-military children are unable to experience the same type of longing for their parents or family members because of their inability to relate to the situation. Most can probably say they have not spent much time away from their parents for the majority of their lives. “I’d feel horrible about it because I wouldn’t be able to see my family member,” Sophomore Hana Wasuge said, “I would always be missing them and could only go two days without them.” 

Deployment can be an emotional process and can have lasting effects. The issue is that families are forced to accustom to completely different conditions so frequently that it can be difficult to eventually reunite the family.