Do you feel you faced any detrimental challenges your non-military family peers didn't, as you made the transition from high school to college? If so, what?
Have a child soon to be in a similar situation, so any thoughts helpful.
Have a child soon to be in a similar situation, so any thoughts helpful.
For going from highschool to college there is almost zero negative, since it's the nth time you've moved and had to rebuild a social structure.
Consider the number of total school changes for an average domestic student is 3. K-5, 6-8, 9-12, and in those cases they keep their friend groups.
Another upside, in retrospect: you end up getting to see, up-close, a huge range of the social/cultural/political landscape.
It's hard to demonize an outgroup much when you at times were that outgroup -- or were at least, in the abstract, some outgroup. You end up forced to confront (deep-down, maybe mostly unconsciously) the arbitrariness and...malleability of a lot of things. You end up with a lot of tolerance. I'm thankful I had that experience, even if it was at times not particularly fun.
I think it's fundamentally about increased tolerance to uncomfortable/novel situations.
Which suck. But apparently it is a learned skill! Or at least coping strategies are.
I'd be fascinated to see a study on adolescent coping strategies in non-military vs military child populations.