Aislin Freedman, Junior
Having lived in marblehead for 12 years, I’m now used to the customs, but when I first moved here at age five, I was shocked. One of the biggest shockers was how many people have lived here their whole lives. I would ask where people were born, and expected to hear them start talking about a town in another state. Somewhere they lived before, whether it was far away or close, but I always expected them to say they were born in another state. Of course I knew some people had lived in one place for their whole lives, but I thought THAT was the rarity. When I ask people in Marblehead where they were born, most people say Marblehead, or a nearby town like salem. When people ask where I was born (or I offer up the information as a sort of “fun fact” during icebreakers) I talk about how I was born in a small town in Texas, where I lived for a year before moving to California. At five years old, you expect everyone to have the same experiences as you, especially if you have been surrounded by people who HAVE had the same experiences as you. By the time I was five years old, I had lived in five different houses, and never celebrated more than one birthday in each house. While this still wasn’t common where I came from, it wasn’t unheard of. This was because growing up, I lived on Edwards Air Force base.
I don’t remember much from when I lived at Edwards Air Force Base, which is located in the middle of the Mojave Desert, California. Most of the memories I have are short, seemingly random memories, or things my parents have told me about. One thing to remember is that the Air Force Base is vastly different from Marblehead. Hearing a sonic boom (the sound of an airplane breaking the sound barrier) is commonplace, and will wake toddlers up from naps, which I know from my personal experience there as a toddler. Every day at noon, the loudspeakers all over the base play the national anthem, and every single person stops what they’re doing to put their hand on their heart and look towards the nearest american flag. My mom says that it was crazy for her to see even the tiny children stop playing their game, and put their hand on their heart to face the flag. The desert winds are so strong that if you don’t secure your trampoline to the ground, it will end up over the fence in your neighbor’s backyard. And don’t get too attached to people. Military families move every three years on average, so that friend you have now will be gone next year, and you’ll find a new friend. But this isn’t all bad, it’s just part of the culture.
Many military families are extremely friendly, especially towards other military families. My mom says this is because everyone knows what you’re going through, and is going through the same thing. Moving every three years isn’t easy, especially when it’s to someplace like the Mojave desert. My family moved once every year while we lived at Edwards, but they were all staying on the base. After that, my dad left active duty and joined the reserves, where we don’t have to move unless we want to. However all this moving and friendliness of military families makes for interesting friends. When I went to tour colleges in Colorado recently, we met up with a different family every day for lunch or dinner, catching up with old friends that my parents hadn’t seen in years, or childhood friends I hadn’t talked to since I was small, but we all were able to talk like we never stopped.
One of my favorite parts of my military family is that my dad is friends with an astronaut. His name is Bob Hines and when he and his family came to Boston recently, our families had dinner together. Bob Hines was part of the recent Crew 4 that launched to the ISS for 6 months, and among our normal conversations, he would mention his time in space. Being a space geek myself, I found this fascinating, but didn’t want to pester him with questions.
I’ve met many people who might think badly of the military, and although I don’t plan on joining, I will always cherish the unique experiences that being part of a military family has brought me. Every experience comes with good and bad, but either way makes memories. The term for a child of someone in the military is a “military brat,” and so while I’m thankful I live in marblehead now, and cherish my life here, I can also say that I am proud to be a military brat.