PSC Cycles

As a military family, we start to live our lives in these PSC cycles.  I understand it works different for different branches and different jobs, but this is a small glimpse into what it's been like.

We will start with the "dream sheet".  You started debating months or even a year prior about all the possibilities.  You have these hopes and dreams.  The day finally comes when you find out what the possibilities actually are.  It becomes real.  You know that if you put it on that "dream sheet" you could really move there.  So if you don't want to go to Alaska, don't put it on your "dream sheet", even as your fifth choice.  The "dream sheet" gets submitted, and you realize it doesn't matter what you put on that sheet.  You have no control at all.  You get to wait, hope, and pray.

After lots of waiting, that's not as long as it actually feels, you get your assignment.  Let's hope we are excited.  Most of the time, we are excited!  Then, I get the itch. The itch that says I want to leave NOW!  Not in the four to five month that we are actually going to move, but now, right now.

You spend the next two months cleaning out your house, because you do not want to bring junk or unwanted toys or clothes the next house.  It is a wonderful purge!  

One month before you leave, a sinking feeling hits.  You were so excited to leave you were running out the door, but reality sinks in and you don't want to leave the friends you have made over the assignment.  You try to pack in as much friend time as possible and try not to cry.  Hoping the last time you saw them, is not "goodbye", but "see you later".

Finally you get to your new home.  You are so incredibly excited to see what everything will be like.  You start settling in and making new friends. 

Then a year or so later you start talking about that dream sheet again......