It took me a really long time to really identify myself as a veteran because
when somebody describes a veteran, they're not describing me.
They're not describing somebody that looks like me or anything like that.
My daughter actually had an experience a couple weeks back at school.
They were all talking about what their moms and dads did for a living and she told them that
my mom's in the Army and this little boy did not believe her.
Like he put her in tears, was calling her a liar and everything.
This little boy didn't understand that like women are soldiers too.
And that kind of made me sad because I feel like in 2021 there should be a
better perception of what a soldier looks like.
When I was 17 years old and I decided I needed to really start
thinking about my future and where I wanted my life to go,
I decided the military and the Army was really the only branch I considered.
I was really fortunate when I was active duty my
first duty station was in Germany. So when I was 18 years old I moved to Germany.
That in itself was just this amazing experience.
To really get out of Michigan, to get out and really see how
other people in the world live.
The military and the Army in itself is kind of behind as far as equality goes. They've made a lot of headway but
we're still not quite where we need to be.
Being a female serving I've been a giant inconvenience the entire time.
And, they made sure to let you know that you were an inconvenience.
And then anytime I would do something well it was because for
whatever reason it was either an easier task or somehow I had an upper hand. It was never just
me doing a good job and if there was something that was difficult and I needed assistance with
which is the reality of males and females alike,
Sometimes you just need help doing something or you don't know how to do it.
It was because I was a female, it was never just because I didn't know how to do it.
I felt like I had to work 10 times as hard to get a quarter of the respect that the males got.
My advice to any woman that serves is, befriend your female vets with you,
stay close, look after each other.
When I was transitioning off active duty and moving back to the states,
My ex-husband and I struggled to find employment, he is a veteran as well.
There was this giant misconception of the military, it's what they seen on tv,
the yelling and the constantly running around. And it's not always like that
I think that you need to ignore the stereotypes
because like any other prospective employee that's coming into an interview, we're all very different.
We all bring great experience to the table and really looking at our experience and who we are
as an individual like you would any other person who was not serving is really important.
We were just working really hard to better ourselves and it felt like no matter what we did it didn't matter.
and it got to the point where we were nearly evicted from our apartment and
we wouldn't have anywhere to go.
Luckily we had stumbled on the VFW National Home for Children.
We were accepted into that program which really helped us get on our feet.
It allowed me to finish my degree, it allowed me to have time to find better employment, which I did.
They provided daycare for us which was a huge help for us.
It was really hard to accept that I needed that help and that support but
I had to swallow my pride for the sake of my children and I would do it all over again.