13. Military Family.

      Some people would say living in a military family is difficult. It is somewhat true. In one hand, there are military values that you should embrace because you are the reflection of your military parents.      On the other hand, there are benefits that only military personnel and their families can avail of. These benefits are wide-ranging – we have medical, recreation, and Army housing.     Let us go first with the military values that others may find difficult or what makes living in a military family, difficult. First is about discipline.   At home, we were always asked to fix our bed after we wake up in the morning and refusal to conform would be World War III against our mother.    Our mother is also a military personnel. It was part of her training to fix her bed because failure to do so she will receive a demerit from her higher officer. Fixing one’s bed may seem unnecessary but it surely reflects how disciplined you are.    Waking up 10 o’clock in the morning is considered late in our house. As they say  “Early to bed, Early to rise” in my case, I say “Late in bed, still early to rise”  My parents are early risers. They always wake up at 4:30 in the morning even if they sleep late. According to them, they have become used to it because it was part of their training. Each of us has a duty roster or a list of duties that we must do every day after we fix our bed. For example, my duty is to throw the garbage, wash the dishes and follow orders from my kuya and ate.    To sum up these are some of the military values being taught to us military dependents—sense of discipline, sense of responsibility/duty and sense of conformity. Let us now proceed to the benefits of living in a military family. Like what I have said earlier, the benefits are wide-ranging because we have housing, healthcare, sports and fitness programs, educational programs, and recreation programs. In the recreation program we have a park, basketball courts, grandstand, firing range, and bike trail, just to name a few. When my parents are not busy with work, we often go to the Army grandstand to jog and do sprints. We consider this activity as a form of family bonding.   In sports and fitness program the army wellness center offers sports clinic every summer for military dependents. They offer sports such as: Basketball, Volleyball, Football, Boxing, Tennis, Badminton, Swimming, Muay Thai, Arnis, Taekwondo and Karate. I chose Basketball and Boxing. Before I started participating in the annual basketball summer clinic in our camp, I already have a background about the sport because my father was a passionate basketball player.  For self-defense purposes, I chose Boxing. Learning this sport was not easy, which you can already see with its sharp difference with Basketball – the pounding of the muscles, the stretching out of lungs.     Another assistance we get is healthcare. Under the healthcare program is free medical and dental service. To me, this is one of the most important because even we take vitamins or supplements we can get sick for some reasons and we know this is very expensive in private hospitals.  Talking about education, the Army have sought partnership with a number of private organizations. These organizations offers scholarship to military dependents. One example, is the Asia Pacific College.   The most important assistance for me is housing because this is one of the basic needs. In our case, our family is already blessed to have been granted a housing because the competition is very high.