Military students make sacrifices

Students share experiences growing up, moving around while having military parents

Designated in 1986 by Casper Weinberger, April is the month of the Military Child, or Purple Up!, which recognizes students with military parents and the things they do for the country. San Antonio is known as “Military City, USA” because of its multiple military installations, so there is a high population of military children.

To be honest, [being a military child] is not a good experience because you’ve got to meet a bunch of new people over and over again and then it disrupts you. With me being an athlete, it definitely disrupts the chemistry between the sport and everything, and then it’s just a lot, it’s a lot of change. We moved about every four years and my fourth year ended up being my sophomore year, so I was in this school for half and in a different school for the other half. [My favorite thing about military life has been] all the different places you can go. I was in Germany and you could go anywhere. We went to different cities because they weren’t that far. My favorite thing to do in Germany was sports, it was way easier to play sports over there.
-Marquise Riggins

Students with military parents have to move often which can affect their schooling experiences. When students move consistently their school work gets transferred and friend groups shift around. Moving so much can be difficult.

“I’ve moved around a lot my entire life. I’ve lived in like six different states, and we moved a lot while I was in school so I met a lot of different people, but it was always hard trying to fit in again every single place that we moved,” senior Jonathan Ridley said.

Children with military parents have to move homes sometimes more than once in a year, whether that’s to a different state or another country. Moving around usually begins when students are at a very young age and can extend into high school, but military students experience staying in one place as they graduate from high school.

“My parents are retiring and I’m also graduating, so I don’t have to worry about [moving] anymore. I’m just going to college but I moved every three or four years starting in elementary school,” senior Iyanna Webb said.

When I was younger, I had to move around a lot and my parents were switching jobs and homes and moving to different countries, states, everything. I think that affected me a lot when I was younger because I never had the same group of friends for very long. I moved here when I was in middle school and I’ve been here ever since, so it makes me more grateful for the friends I have and being able to just be a part of this community. It makes me more grateful that I have a circle [of friends] and I know it’s not leaving because I’m staying. [My favorite part of being a military child] I guess is being able to travel because we used to live overseas. It was way cheaper to go everywhere and vacations were always nice. My favorite place we visited, I’d say, was Greece because [it] was really pretty and the weather was nice.
-Iyanna Webb

There are many different factors that go into where a military parent gets stationed. Things like family and financial situation and where that particular personnel may be needed can affect where the family is required to move. This can make the process long and difficult for the family causing them to postpone the intended move date.

“When we were moving here to Texas, it was actually during COVID so the dates were pushed back like six months. It was really weird because we were all ready to move and everything. We’d already sold our old house and then they were like ‘Well, we can’t move you out right now because of COVID and everything going on,’” Ridley said.

When changing schools, families have to request the student’s medical and educational records from the school and healthcare providers at least a month prior to the move and submit the transcripts to the new school as soon as possible. If the move is delayed the timeline for these submissions can be messed up and need to be reevaluated.

“When my dad gets the dates of when we move my parents have always tried to get me into school right away once we get to our destination. It usually takes about a week just to get into the system and everything for school,” Ridley said.

Being a military kid is definitely different from just staying in one spot. People usually stay in one area for their whole lives, but I’ve been all over the place so I’ve got to see a lot of different cultures and a lot of new people. It’s been interesting. I’ve always tried to join extracurriculars just to get to know people and fit in more and just get to know what’s going on in my area. [People] always have their groups so it was always different, and it was different everywhere I moved. Here in Texas it was also different because I’ve always lived in the Midwest.
-Jonathan Ridley

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *