Monday, March 28, 2011

Is the Army Giving ME a Logistics Test?

Often times I wonder if the Army is giving me a logistics test...

The Army Gods: "You know I feel like we should test Jessica just to make sure she is commited to this whole college thing. Ahhh, you know what we should do? We should give Mr. I the report date of October on his PCS orders, you know, right in the middle of a semester. That way we'll see just how savvy and logisticly inclined this milspouse student can be. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Me: "F You!"

Many of you don't know but I started college in Hawaii (at the ripe age of twenty-one because I thought I was too cool for school at eighteen). Mr. I put in for an extension to stay in Hawaii for an extra year because UH had an AWESOME accelarated program where I could finish my BSW in three years. I would have been willing to stay an extra six to eight months to finish.

Well, the Army had other plans. Instead of extending Mr. I the retention guy "messed up" and Mr. I somehow got orders to Virginia...and his report date was a month from when we received the news. Needless to say we were PISSED! Oh, and the orders were only for a year and a half...I know, completely weird.

Anyway, I tried to take this as a sign and forced myself to look for the silver lining. I researched and found a great school in Virginia that had one of the best programs in the country. Being that I don't qualify for financial aid (booooo), I decided to take my undergrad courses at a community college to save money. I figured since we were only going to be here 1.5 years I might as well get my A.S. because it would transfer to any four-year university. I looked at it as a college insurance plan.

Mr. I was suppose to deploy 6 months to Haiti for relief efforts and be back in time to PCS. All weekend we waiting for the call for him to get on the bus and ship out. We waited....and waited...and waited. We never got the call. Here I am thinking, "Yay! He might not have to go!" I should have knocked on wood when I said that. Mr. I calls his higher up and asks what's going on. He was told to report to formation first thing Monday morning....uh oh! The next morning Mr. I was off to formation and I impatiently waiting for him to come home. He came through the door and things didn't look promising. He sat next to me and said, "I'm deploying to Iraq for a year." SILENCE. "Okay," I said hesitating and thinking a million thoughts a minute. I was in shock. This wasn't how it was suppose to be! Then again, when is it ever?!

The next day Mr. I goes to formation again and comes home. "I'm going to Afghanistan for a year." NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! At least that's how I felt inside. I said, "Okay," again and immediately started crying.

Needless, to say Mr. I is almost done with this stinkin' deployment. We have been here for almost 2.5 years now and I'm finally graduating with my A.S. in May and attending that wonderful school, I researched about back in Hawaii, this summer.

Now, back to the logistics test. The Army decided it would be a good idea for us to PCS in October, right smack dab in the middle of the semester! I contemplated moving ahead of the report date in order to start the semester on time but I couldn't do it, especially with Mr. I returning from a deployment. So, I finally accepted my fate that I would have to take the semester off. My reason for not wanting to take a semester off is because I REALLY want to finish my BSW and MSW in Colorado. I DON'T want to move again without finishing. I will have already attended FIVE schools by the time I'm done with my master degree...that's just not normal!

So, this weekend I was stalking the college in Colorado website and found they have something called "2nd session". It goes from OCTOBER 10th - December 11th! I think this was made for me...okay, probably not but it's nice to think about :) So, my plan is to apply to said college, register for those courses, find a home, unpack an entire house and attend classes at the same time. I can do it!

I've actually done it before. The move from Hawaii to Virginia I took four online classes while PCSing across the Pacific and the continental United States. It was also January and I had to do our taxes...without internet...and mind you we lived on tumbling mats for three months while our household goods traveled across the ocean on a boat and road across the US on the back of a semi. Oh, the glamous lifestyle we live! And you ask yourself, "why didn't you just buy a bed?" BECAUSE WE WERE POOR!

The story could go on forever but I won't bore you with anymore details. The point of this post is...

HA! Army you will never defeat me! Logistics test or not I shall prosper!

Too much? Yeah, I think so too.

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