Ever since we found out about our shore duty, everything went into warp seed. Decisions needed to be made with very little time to make them. It hasn’t exactly been fun times.
Thankfully A was in port when we found about his acceptance into the Olmsted Foundation Program and we were able to talk things out about the upcoming decisions that needed to be made. The first thing he did say to me was that I was in charge of making the big decisions :
- where he’d be taking his 6 month language course class
- approving his language course date
With A being on deployment there’s a lot of unknowns and a severe lack of communication because that’s just how it is in the submarine force. The Olmsted Foundation lets you take the language course on the west or east coast OR in-country. Ideally taking it in-country would be the top choice for most because it means more time in that country. This was definitely a tough decision, which I pestered one of my closest friends to talk it out with. I resorted to making a list of pros and cons, when that didn’t exactly help my decision, I started a want vs. need list. And the needs won overall because there are just things we have to take care of in the states which rank pretty high in priorities. Plus, I visioned things being extremely stressful, if we chose to do in-country, with A on deployment, it left us a very small window to get a million things done and from what I heard medical clearance takes forever. After some thinking, I decided on taking the language course on the east coast. Phew.
Now it’s a new week and I have just learned the language course start date and it’s not too long after A returns from deployment! Things running through my mind:
- decision needs to be made ASAP meaning probably a day or two
- S-T-A-N-D-O-W-N and which half A will he be taking
In June, we’ll be attending a weekend orientation to learn more about the foundation and how our next few years will go. Yesterday I found out that the language course date is the following week after the orientation. And this just happens to be the time frame of second half stand down.
We don’t have official orders yet, but it will happen once I approve of the language course start date. It’s a tough decision because I’m so afraid of his boat overriding his orders. I’ve seen it happen before, so it puts me a little on edge. I’ve been emailing my friends and fellow scholars asking for advice and how orders work in general. I’m not super knowledgeable about all this, but I sure am learning a lot.
So this has been the madness as of late. It’s crazy how quickly things are moving and it’s just going to get even more hectic. A move still needs to happen among the million other things that will happen in the next couple of months.
I normally don’t stress out too much about things, but when others get a little urgent with needing answers right away, I get a little antsy and start to stress a bit. These are definitely the decisions I didn’t imagine making while A was on deployment, but hey with the military life anything is a go. Just gotta roll with it, right?
Well that’s that !
All of it is still exciting though!! A new adventure is heading your way soon!
Oh gosh, yeah the whole process of being stationed overseas was a lot of paperwork and running around base getting cleared for everything. I can’t imagine the stress of trying to do all of that on your own in a short amount of time.
I can imagine the stress of it all, but ooh, I’m so excited and so jealous!! I want to move to another country and learn their language…!