Should we stay or should we go?

It's about that time again.


It's time for Randy to decide whether to re-enlist for 4 more years, or to get out of the Marine Corps altogether.  I'm very lucky that Randy includes me in this decision, and values my input and my opinion.

Reenlistment in Iraq- October 2006

Here's the problem though.... I LIKE the Marine Corps.  I'm not completely sure why.  But I do.   Apparently, as I was informed this weekend, this makes my husband's decision a LOT harder.  


I've been lucky in the time that I've been around to have very positive experiences.  Soon after I graduated college, I decided to move to Jacksonville with Randy.  6 weeks after I got down there, he left for his second deployment.  As a girlfriend in the eyes of the Marine Corps, I was pretty much a nobody.  But, to my husband's unit, I was someone who loved and supported and cared for someone who was deployed.  I was given practically all the same information that the wives were given, and I was allowed to participate in all the activities as if I were a spouse.  By the time the 3rd deployment rolled around, I was a Key Volunteer actively involved in our battalion. 

Michelle and Me- Valentine's Day scrapbooking- January 2007

See, in our first unit, it wasn't a matter of IF you would help out.  It was a matter of WHEN and WHAT you were planning on doing to help.  It was a matter of helping out, and getting help when you needed it.  Our battalion turned into a great big second family, which immediately sucked me in.  I learned very quickly that if someone needed something, you stepped up, and somehow someway that help would be returned if you needed it. 


I'm still amazed by the network of friends we have to turn to- people we haven't seen or talked to in 3 or 4 years are always a phone call away.  


Sure, the Marine Corps has thrown us some curve balls, and it hasn't always been the easiest ride, but what in life isn't challenging?  Doesn't that make the good times more worthwhile? My husband is doing something he loves, and that I love too.  It's rewarding for both of us.  How many people can say that?

But then we look at the flip side.  The Civilian Life.

Oh, to be "normal".  

To have a husband that doesn't leave for seven months at a time once a year.  A husband who doesn't bring in more dirt with him than anything else.  A husband who can actually STOP at a grocery store on his way home from work and pick up a gallon of milk.  A husband who doesn't respond to things with "Roger".  A normal 9-5 job.  To be able to say to someone in the military- "I don't know how you do it." To be able to buy a house and live in a place for more than 4 years.  Normalcy sure does sound appealing after the last 8 years.  But then again, it also sounds kinda, well, boring. 


So, as we venture into our next deployment, we will also be trying to figure out what step is best for us, and for the future.  That's the only sucky part- only once every four years do we get a chance to make this decision- and its hard to look that far in the future, while worrying about so many other things at the same time.  But we'll figure it out.  We always have.  And I'm pretty sure as much as Randy wants to fight the fact that he's a "lifer", we will be staying on this wild ride called the Marine Corps.


Which is more than ok with me.