Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Reality is setting in...


Sonshine is at MEPS today.

MEPS is the acronym for Military Entrance Processing Command. He was loaded onto a bus last night with a handful of other students from his school and taken to a Dallas hotel (to stay overnight)(yikes). Today they'll undergo a physical exam along with some other assessments. In addition, I believe he'll be able to choose his field of training, which last I heard is going to be helicopter maintenance. Ultimately he wants to pilot a helicopter, but he has to have a college degree for that, so he's gonna become a mechanic/gunner and then take classes to earn his degree, then cross train into helicopter pilot training.

(Image from Wikipedia and used as per their common licensing whatevers.)

That's the plan. We'll see how it goes.

Meantime, it's all becoming so very real for me. He's gone to MEPS for crying out loud. Although, he'll probably be around for another month or two until slots open up in his field of training. But still.

Sonshine and his activities and his presence (meaning primarily the noise he makes on every level) has been the soundtrack of my life for the last four plus years. And soon that familiar, comfortable background noise will be gone. It's going to be strange and sad and disconcerting.


Last night, with him gone, was an appetizer to my life in a few months...it was really quite strange.

What's a momma to do?

3 comments:

Regina Richards said...

My middle boy left for field training yesterday. He was excited and yet very nervous as well. So although I have every confidence he'll do great, I feeling a little mommy nerves for him. The transition to empty-nestdom is no small step. At first it felt very unbalancing. But then I developed a new life rhythm and (I didn't believe this when people told me, but now I do) I actually started to LIKE my new freedom.

p.s. my husband was a helicopter mechanic in the Army several decades ago. If you think any experiences that old might be of use to Sonshine, he'd be happy to talk to him about his experience.

mtnchild said...

Is he going to make this a career? Is helicopter mechanic something that will transfer to the outside world if he doesn't make it a career?

You will come to realize how free you will be when T is gone ... you know he's safe for now and that should rest easy on your heart and mind! I had sooo much freedom when Donny moved and I enjoyed it immensely, but now with Susan here I really do feel trapped ... she contributes nothing ... feel blessed, he's a good boy (Man)!

Jen FitzGerald said...

Thanks, Regina and Mom. Part of me IS looking forward to not having the direct responsibility and worry, but I also know, as close as Sonshine and I are, it is going to take some adjustment. Time to start taking advantage of the freedom and doing more stuff.

Regina, thank your hubby for the kind offer. I passed it along.

*HUGS* Mom. I'm sorry your roomy hasn't worked out the way you'd hoped.