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Did you know CASY was named best in class by the Call of Duty Endowment?
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Running Your Race: Military Spouses & Retirement
By: Amanda Marksmeier
On April 17, 2017, approximately 30,000 people will run the Boston Marathon. Many of these runners have trained for years, hoping to compete in this prestigious race. They’ve dreamed of what it would be like to be the first to cross the finish line as victory cheers ring out around them.
We know what this scene looks like because we’ve seen it on camera, and yet, when the first three runners cross the finish line, the race is far from over. There are many runners who are still running their own race, striving to do their best even though they know they won’t be coming in first.
Approaching military retirement is not unlike running a marathon. Both require hard work, persistence, some pain, and dedication. For service members, each day before retirement has its own training hurdles; they attend classes to finalize education, and work with organizations to translate their military service into civilian terms for a résumé.
As a service member focuses on his or her retirement, there is another race that is coming to an end. The service member’s spouse is also hurtling toward a finish line in an effort to check off final PCS details and other transition-related tasks. While completing this race as a couple is a cause for celebration, it’s also an important time for spouses to ask “What does retirement mean for me?”
What do you want to do?
For many spouses, it’s difficult to conceptualize military retirement—it’s an end, but it’s also a beginning. Now that you aren’t moving every 2-3 years due to a PCS or juggling the demands of deployment and training schedules, you can start to think about a career trajectory that is intentional, rather than a job change due to circumstances beyond your control. For the first time in a long time, you have choices!