My New Normal
I know Mom and Syd are the usual bloggers, but as work and travel present themselves in our lives, Mom is helping Dad with his project for today and Syd is in Denver visiting with her boyfriend, Alex. So, I decided to take this opportunity to share what my experiences have been like coming home and getting used to my new normal.
As we talked about in last Wednesday's blog, I am home and sadly sooner than we had all hoped and definitely not under the ideal circumstances. For the past 6 weeks, my life was all about having military bearing and maintaining the status of professionalism required to represent the Navy. My normal used to be sleeping in the same room as 12-100 girls, getting up before the sun, silence, straight faces, and getting yelled at even if I didn’t do anything wrong. I was being trained to carry on the legacy of what the Navy and being a U.S. Navy Sailor meant. I had very little to no contact with my family which was harder than I could’ve ever imagined at first but after a while, I got used to it. I was expecting these things as I knew from talking to recruiters and friends in the fleet, these were all things that were par for the course.
Coming home was quite honestly an emotional shock but not in a negative way. As expected, I cried a lot. I’m slowly starting to get the hang of what it’s like doing the repairs and what a normal day looks like on Dauntless. The first couple days I was home, I asked permission for everything. I was using military terms that my family didn’t know. I didn’t smile, I didn’t laugh, I was silent all the time. Which, if you watched our introduction video on our YouTube channel, Sailing Dauntless, you’d see that how I was acting was the COMPLETE opposite of who I am. Breaking my habits to then unexpectedly start to re-form them was definitely a little weird. Things were challenging at first because it was drilled into my head everyday that I need to have military bearing and how I acted as a civilian is nothing like how I will act when I wear the uniform or any Navy pride gear. Coming back home into the civilian world has kind of been like riding a bike. I didn't forget how to do it but I needed the training wheels for a little bit to help me out.
Being on the boat before basic training I spent as much time as I could talking to my friends on social media and just hanging out…free time! Although, I was physically present for things like the boat being offloaded from the transport ship in Riviera Beach, and it was exciting, it didn’t hit me on the full circle importance because I would only be visiting on this new adventure. Now that I am here full time, I find reflecting on that day especially, that this adventure is going to have such a profound impact on my life.
I am happy to say that I don’t need the training wheels anymore and I have gotten into the swing of my new normal. Of course, I still forget sometimes that not everyone knows military terms like I do so, my stories don’t always make total sense but, I have had nothing but love and support with the transition and I am excited to start my new life and die with memories, not dreams. And without fail, I will continue to live my life, Dauntless.
The first time I walked on the trampolines after the boat came off the transport ship and was safely in U.S. waters. I was so nervous…but it was so cool!