Coming Home: Expectations

It has almost been 1 year since since I have returned from Iraq.  Some days it feels like it’s been a decade, but most of the time it feels like it was only yesterday that we were greeted by the large crowd of family and friends at the Bloomington Armory.  I have learned a lot since I have returned and have spent a lot of time thinking and most likely over analyzing most situations and thoughts.

One thing I know for sure is that coming home is the hardest part of the whole deployment process. This does not mean that it’s not the happiest part in the end, but adjusting is a long, difficult process. They warned us not to have high expectations about coming home. They said it was going to be hard to keep your emotions from letting your brain from creating great expectations. And even then, I decided to start recognizing that coming home would be difficult, that the life you had before would be altered forever. When you are deployed and all you want to do is come home, you can’t think of anything better than so be with your family. However, what I didn’t realize then was that to expect things to be close to the same as when I left, was a high expectation. Nobody can prepare you for that.

Now, I am not saying it’s hasn’t been great to get to know my husband again. it’s been magical to almost re-fall in love. That part is priceless. But it’s been a long journey………..

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