What Courage Looks Like in My Life

What does it take to move across the US nine times in thirteen years? The answer is ‘courage’. It takes courage to say goodbye, to say hello, and to stay strong in the face of constant change.

Saying goodbye takes an enormous amount of courage. I am sixteen years old and have faced many challenges in my life so far, but saying goodbye year after year to close friends is one of the challenges I am often afraid of. True courage is acting in the face of fear and despite my fears of goodbyes I acted by embracing the wonderful fact that friendships don’t end when you are physically separate.

Hello is such a simple word and yet takes great courage to utter year after year. I have been told that I am an extrovert, but the longing alone for conversation and people is often not enough to make me walk up to a total stranger and introduce myself. What is required to do this is courage. You have to push past the fear of the unknown and open your mouth to utter that word, “Hello!” So, that you can find that the longing was not only yours, but shared by the one you are speaking to

Change, and especially constant change, takes great courage to face. As a military child you find change embedded in almost every aspect of your life: from a new house to your dad not being home. It is hard to have a new front door every July and to sit down at the dinner table and look across at an empty chair. These things require a deep breath. Breathing in courage and out all of the worries and fears. Then you will find that the new door is even prettier than your old one and be able to look at that chair with hope for the day when it will not be empty anymore.

To make and leave friends, open that new door, and smile with love at that empty chair takes courage. Military children are full of courage from the time they wake up and ride the bus to a new school till the time they close their eyes praying for their service member parent who is defending their country. The world should take a page from the courageous book of the military child’s life.