Year: 11th gradeAge: 17School: Vicenza High SchoolPlaces Lived: Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, Iowa, Guam, South Korea, ItalyFavorite Assignment: TennesseeWhat is your favorite keepsake or souvenir? My photo album that records all my adventures from around the globe.Plans for the Future: College and then joining the Air Force after college.

My mom, Sgt. 1st Class Maria Patricia Escobedo, a logistics specialist, has been in the U.S. Army for about 20 years. In my opinion, being a daughter of a military servicemember is both a challenge and an honor. Military kids deal with challenges that most kids in the United States do not have to face. These challenges include coping with deployed parents and PCSing constantly. Ever since I can remember, I have dealt with my mom leaving for deployments to Kuwait and Iraq, and having to pack us up and move whenever the opportunity came. Since my mom is a single parent, whenever she is deployed I have to move from our current station as well. While my mom is deployed I stay either with my family in McAllen, Texas, or with family friends. I always enjoy the experience I received from moving, and the relationships I make; however, add those moves along with PCSing and it can become a very stressful situation for any military kid.

Still, the military does teach very important life lessons. Personally, I think military children are better equipped to handle change than the average kid in America because we have the ability to adapt to most any situation. For example, I am about to move for my senior year of high school to Washington, D.C., and I believe that being a military child has given me the ability to reassure myself that I can work through abrupt changes in my life. The constant support from my mother has played a key role in my military life as well. Not only is having the ability to adapt to situations a beneficial skill in our current lives, it is a skill that we can take with us in the future. These challenges shape us into independent adults. Moreover, PCSing to overseas locations, such as Seoul, South Korea, and Vicenza, Italy, has shaped my life in various ways. Not only do I have friends all over the world, but I have been able to experience worldwide culture first hand, culture that many of my friends only read about in text books. For instance, during my travels around Italy I have been able to visit locations such as Rome and see the Coliseum and the Sistine Chapel.

If you ask me, the benefits far outweigh the stress and constant moving that come with being a military child.

Although I do not know how differently my life would be if I was not a military kid, I can assure you that it would not be as exciting or adventurous as it has been. I am thankful to my mother for choosing a profession in the U.S. Army and am honored to receive such a privilege to live life as a military kid.

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