Home can have a different meaning from person to person. Home can be a house that you and your family live in, it could be a dorm room, an apartment you live in by yourself. In a military family home is wherever you are stationed. They don’t get to pick where their home is.  

Military families face many hardships from constantly moving to having only one parent while the other is deployed elsewhere. Moving constantly can occasionally influence a child’s education. Being in a new place can mean having difficulty making new friends and keeping in touch with the old ones.  

Many of the students at PLHS face these hardships of being in a military family and must find ways around these obstacles.  

Freshman Emily Colclasure is one of these resilient people. She has lived many places including Virginia, North Carolina, England, and soon to be Florida. Just like everyone else she has her own unique way of coping with these hardships.   

“Just spending time with my mom, when my dad was constantly on deployment really helped,” Calclasure said.  

Moving schools can be hard on kids, having to leave friends and make new ones at a new school with unfamiliar people.  

“Honestly starting a new school in 7th grade was hard. I think before that moving wasn’t as bad because I was younger,” Calclasure said.   

 Going to different schools can cause kids to miss out on some information because of the different curriculums that schools have or fall behind because of the missed information.   

“There were sometimes that I fell behind and had to catch-up,” Freshman Natalie Watson said. 

Having one parent deployed can take a toll on the family and their relationship with that person, both individually and as a family. It can completely change the environment that the kids come home to everyday.  

“Another hard thing would have to be being sad before or during my dad’s deployments. But then in a way it got worse because I got into the age where you’re already becoming more independent,” Calclasure said.  

Through all the bad there is some good that these kids get to experience. Living in many different places allows them to meet all kinds of new people and see many different places.  

“Moving around has allowed me to meet many different types of people and see different parts of the country,” Watson said.  

Going to different schools and meeting new people sounds like it would be hard and not fun at all. But sometimes that’s not the case.  

“One of the good things I have found about moving a lot is that every new place we go I get to restart with new people, new school, new friends,” Watson said.  

Moving from place to place every few years can also mean that you know people all over the county and possibly the world.   

“I get to see a lot of places, and I have many friends it a lot of those places as well,” Watson said.  

Even though being in a military family can be challenging sometimes there are things that you can do to help make the change it brings easier.  

“Be confident! Starting over and meeting new people can be hard and scary sometimes but just know you could be missing out on some great friendships if you stay silent,” Calclasure said. “Also, spend as much time with your family as possible you won’t get that chance when that parent is deployed and not home.”   

There are many unique struggles that a military family must go through in their lives but finding a home can be strenuous sometimes. A house doesn’t become your home the second you move into it, it’s the love and laughter that your family brings, that makes a house your home.