The Sub Culture

If Third Culture Kids is the "third culture" than military brats are the sub culture. There are many other different sub cultures and each have differences and similarities to one another. Here is a little bit about my life as a military brat:

My father kept taking overseas assignments. Thus my family spent almost two decades in Europe. Every three years or so the military would send us "home" to the states to see family. Due to our short and few visits, my sister and I never really became very close to our grandfathers or uncles (we have a very small extended family). Going home, to my parents, was going back to the states to see their families. Going home, to my sister and I, was returning to where ever we were living at the time in Europe. Even though we weren't Italian, going home to Italy was more of a home to us than us being american and going home to the states. We didn't have a full ownership to Italy, though we didn't feel we had it in America either. Living on military bases was another culture in itself and a way of living that you can't describe with out having lived it.

When we did go to the states for our family vacations we would go some place like the grand canyon or disneyworld. But before we got on the plane to return to Europe, we would have to stop at the mall. Now, having been back to the states for several years, going to the mall doesn't thrill me the slightest. But shopping for clothes was either going off base, shopping on base, or through catalogs. More than likely no matter where we chose we ended up owning chothing items that our peers also had. You could look at someone and say, "Is that page 23 from that catalog?" Going to the american mall was like living the american dream. All that was left was going to a real american highschool (not just wondering what it would be like from american movies and television). Going to the teenage girl's mecca was quite mind blowing.