YDU Sometimes I Feel Like Pretty Woman?

FacebookXPinterestEmailEmailEmailShare

Why didn't you tell me that sometimes I'd feel like Pretty Woman?  Before I start, let me state for the record that I am not complaining about my life with my Marine. I love him. He’s the hardest working person I know (like, literally). Still, he is never is too busy to remind me how much he’s missing home.

My Marine is currently in the reserves and before anyone throws out the “ohh only one weekend a month, two weeks a year” (oh no, they didn’t!) commercial at me, let me make things easier for others to understand. Not only is he a Marine dealing with a constant chain of emails, late night texts, questions and concerns from his unit, but he also works a full time civilian job which is rarely less than 50 hours a week.

And then there’s us. If you break it down, we spend an average of six days a month together, less if he’s at AT. See what I did there? It went the Marine Corps,  to the job and then to us.

I get that, I do. It’s not on purpose. It’s not in a malicious.  It's surely not because he doesn’t value our relationship.  That order of thing is just the way things are.

Luckily I’m one of those people who likes my alone time and rarely ever feel the NEED to have someone to go to with me to Target (ahhh…Tarrrrgeetttt). However, sometimes I feel like his mistress. He sneaks into bed late at night and I sneak out of bed in the morning because I don’t want to wake him.

Our weekly communication is hand written notes left on the kitchen table and text messaging. No lie, sometimes when he forgets to pay a bill he leaves money on the table with a note, like “Thanks for last night.” OK, that one is sort of funny at 6am.

I know you’re thinking, Geez, is this girl done? I get it, she’s LONELLLYY, pleaseeeee feel bad for me. No, I’m not. Although none of my friends can relate, and I don’t have a close base or other wives/girlfriends to hang out with on drill weekends, I don’t ever feel sorry for myself.

If anything, I feel lucky because four years later we are still trading a barrage of smiley face text messages, “I love yous” and “I miss yous” on a daily basis. This is the life we have decided to embrace, and it’s not because it pays well (I lie, we’re rich-HA) or because he wants some sort of recognition.

He loves the Marine Corps just as much as he doesn’t sometimes and I love the person it’s shaped both of us into. He’s a devoted, hardworking, selfless individual and in return I’ve become resilient, independent (except for tomato sauce jars and spiders), and grateful for an extra extended honeymoon phase.

If it was easy, everyone would do it. But not everyone does, and that’s what makes me so proud.
Bonnie Blue Pritchard is a USMC Reservist girlfriend (sigh) currently living in Pennsylvania.  Bonnie says, "We very recently bought our first home (like two weeks ago) so we have just begun a totally new chapter in our lives. I like to refer to it as "DIY: WTH were we thinking?"  I love a dry sense of humor, cooking/baking, decorating, all things primitive  Americana and traveling."

Story Continues
SpouseBuzz

Military Spouse Videos

View more