Hello SFM readers! My name is Jen and I am a cupcake lover, coffee addict, spunky and sassy Navy wife! I love to create, write, be inspired and inspire others. My husband and I are on a crazy beautiful journey through the Navy and our marriage. We have enough passion for 5! This can sometimes mean we are a bit hard headed but at the end of the day we both just want to leave each duty station a better place and inspire others. My first few post here at simper fi momma will reveal the first amazing journey Scott and I encountered as a married couple.
The Martin Luther King holiday weekend of 2009 was a pivotal point for Scott and I. We had a very serious discussion about our future. He was at the point in his career where he needed to and wanted to decide if he was going to get out of the Navy. Big decisions to be made and we were still only dating. We quickly realized if we were going to be making these decisions together we needed to seriously discuss what was next for us as a couple. It was a miracle; Scott was finally ready to get married! {I’m pretty sure I was just a wee bit ahead of him.} This turned out to be the easy part of our 6 hour conversation.
Scott was toying with the idea of getting out of the Navy to pursue his degree at UCLA and go into the business world. I was already knee deep in corporate America. I worked at a large financial institution and knew first hand that the corporate world was not stable. America was dealing with the burst of the housing bubble. My company was going to be laying off 400 partners come February. It was obvious to me that Scott’s job was more stable than was mine. After listening to him express his feelings on why he wanted to get out I played devil’s advocate. Yup, you guessed it, I petitioned for him to stay in the Navy! I told him that he couldn’t be guaranteed a job after graduation in the financial business world. With the economy the way it was anything related to the financial world was a huge gamble.
He would be on shore duty for another 2.5 years if he decided to reenlist. Plenty of time to finish his degree while still exploring options in the Navy. I expressed my fear of the unknown as well as my gut feeling that he could really succeed as a military officer if he applied after completing his bachelor’s degree. This was a dream he had had for a long time, but I think part of him was afraid to pursue this dream for fear of failing.
Perhaps my fear of the unknown stemmed from growing up a military child {or brat if you prefer!}. It was a world I knew very well. I knew that my job wouldn’t be a career but I saw the love Scott had for the Navy. I could see the desire he had to make a difference, bring back the “old school” Navy mentality, and his strong desire to be a leader. Walking away from the Navy did not seem to be our destiny. Scott still had plenty to give and gain.
Three months later we were engaged and a month after that we were married. Two weeks after we said “I do” I quit my job & moved 3 hours north to be with Scott and end our long distance relationship. During this time Scott got even more serious about finishing his degree, he stopped going to a community college and enrolled in a four-year university. And so began our journey to Scott becoming a commissioned Naval Officer.
[...] In my last post I shared with you part one of our crazy Navy adventure, From There to Here. [...]
Jen, that sounds much like our experience. We met at the end of his first four years and he was toying with getting out. I had been in corporate as well as government for years, so I convinced him that it was the more stable move.
wow! great article girl!
What an awesome start to your lives together. I can’t wait to hear about the rest of the journey.