Off We Go Need Moving Advice? Just Ask The ‘Military Brats’

Steps echo through an empty house. All the boxes are gone, the car is packed and waiting. There are only a few minutes for one last goodbye, then it’s time to hit the road - again.

Many people move, but for teens living in a military family, it is a rite of passage. Learning to pack up and be flexible is a matter of survival. Often, families don’t know when or where their next move will be. Some families move every two or three years, others stay in one spot for the majority of their lives.

“I’ve only moved three times, before this (move), it was just in Florida,” said Janna Williams. Now in her senior year, she has had to start over at Medical Lake High. Her old school had more than 1,500 students, while Medical Lake has about half that. That’s not the only change Williams faced.

“It’s different on the East Coast. They talk different, dress different and listen to different music.”

Williams said she hasn’t enjoyed her experience as a military teen, but said it has taught her to adjust to new circumstances and has prepared her for the real world.

Not all “military brats” see moving often as a disadvantage.

Brother and sister Evan and Alissa Lewandowski have moved three times in the past four years. They agree that growing up in a military family has been a good experience - except for the time they were moving from California to Alabama and the air conditioner went out in Death Valley. “We just opened the windows and kept driving.”

Cross-country trips can be long when you are trapped in the back seat with your brother, Alissa said.

“We’re not real close or anything, just normal sibling stuff.” Evan said.

The best part about moving around is meeting new people and seeing new places, the teens said. When it gets boring, you know you’ll be moving soon.

“It’s like you get to start a new life,” Alissa, a senior, said.

Evan, a freshman, has decided he likes Washington.

“There’s a lot to do here, like ski,” he said. “You can’t do that in Illinois or in Alabama or Georgia.”

Alissa has attended three high schools. Her brother would like to stay and graduate from Medical Lake.

“My dad is even thinking about retiring so Evan can graduate here,” Alissa said.

Evan knows what his sister thinks about that: “She wants me to have to move around more because she had to - something about it not being fair. …” he said with a grin.

Joe Gaines, a sophomore, and his sister, Michelle, a senior, didn’t just move across the country; they moved around the world. Going from Colorado to the tropical island of Okinawa, near Tawain, was quite an experience.

“It was a culture shock,” Michelle said.

On one of the flights over, the Gaines family flew in a military cargo plane. Their seats were made out of orange netting along the sides of the plane, and there were no windows.

“You fly with your luggage,” she said. On the Air Force base, everyone speaks English. But once you leave the base, hardly anyone does.

Joe said his experience growing up in the military has brought his family closer, and already, they have seen more of the world than some see in their entire lives.

Not all military families move as far or as often.

Take Nikki McKinney, a senior. There are only two moves that she remembers.

“The first was when I was 5, and at 5, nothing matters,” she said. The second was the move to Fairchild, when she was in sixth grade.

But military life still affects her. Her dad is a crew chief on a tanker airplane.

“He’s gone about 100 days out of the year,” she said. “Most of the time we can’t know where he is.”

This year he wasn’t home for Christmas.

“After the first few days you get used to it, but sometimes things happen and you wish he was home.”

The circumstances for teens living in a military family are very different from those who grow up in the civilian world, but the trials of growing up are the same.

“Just don’t give up and don’t let them get to you. Stay encouraged,” Williams said.

Evan’s mom told him after they moved, “It’s not easy, but it will get better.”

He said, “Mom was right every time.”