What it’s like to grow up without a hometown

When you grow up into a military family often the instant you finally have some real friends, your family’s orders change and you end up moving across the country to start all over. Eventually you get used to the concept, but it’s never something that becomes easy.

I was born in Newport, Rhode Island. My father, a naval fighter pilot, was attending the naval war college at the time. When I look back at photos of our family there, it looks look a beautiful town. It has a great port city feel and fishing is a large part of the local culture. I don’t remember the city except in tiny flashes because I only lived there a year, but it’s still a part of who I am.

Following that, I moved to Woodbridge, Virginia while my father was stationed at the pentagon. Because I was young, I didn’t have many close friends so I didn’t notice any oddity in the sensation of moving. I can remember us often taking trips into downtown Washington D.C. to see the cherry blossoms in the spring or the magnificence of the monuments throughout the seasons. Woodbridge itself wasn’t really anything special but it always felt comfortably homey and I have fond memories of sledding down the hill in my backyard with all the other neighborhood kids.

Then my dad’s orders changed once again and the family prepped itself for the next big trip. I had lived in Woodbridge from the time I was 15 months old all the way until I was five. Practically all of my early childhood memories are associated with the time I spent there. That house will forever have a part of me residing in it. This move was much more noticeable. We headed to Ceiba, Puerto Rico where he would lead a fighter squadron. Again I didn’t have any strong friendships to speak of so I was excited to move to such an exotic location. When we got to our new house, my eyes enlarged four times their normal size. I got to live right on a cliff that overlooked the vast expanse of the Caribbean Sea and there were stairs down the cliff face so I could go swimming whenever I wanted.

After only 16 months, scandal struck over a bombing mishap that resulted in the death of a Puerto-Rican citizen so the Navy decided to close the military base. We knew would be transitioned to yet another new city and a new life, but not where. I was definitely reluctant to leave such a beautiful environment – the charms of Puerto Rico had planted their hooks deep within my soul and they weren’t going to release easily.

From this beautiful home, we traveled to the bowels of the deep south, Meridian, Mississippi. Other than the skyline you see here, there was absolutely nothing to this city. While my dad was off training future fighter pilots for the world’s strongest Navy, we would sit around agonizing over this new location. Knowing that moves were common, my only hope was that our orders would change again and we would be moved to a better city.

After a few years, those hopes were realized. My father was promoted and we left the rotten town that is Meridian for what I consider my true home; Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach is a friendly city with a wide variety of activities and a healthy diversity of cultures and ideas. Since the time we moved there when I was seven, I always knew it would the town with which I would associate my happy childhood. Whether swimming in the lake, taking bike rides down at the boardwalk, or just hanging out with the friends I had made at school, I could always sense that I was home.

The experiences I gathered along the path the military laid out for my family have made me into the person I am today. I realized flexibility is an important part of living in a modern society, and I’m glad that I had the opportunity to live in so many different locations. Although my home in Virginia Beach feels far from here, it isn’t awkward because I’m used to living in new places.

I came to The Ohio State University because it has some of the finest programs in the country and I wasn’t about to let distance stop me from getting the best education I could. Ever since I got here, I effectively made Columbus, Ohio into a “home” of its own. The lessons I picked up as a kid have shown me that no matter where a human being ends up, they will inevitably make that place into home.