…But I can control my reaction. Recently I was the victim of what can only be described as cyber bullying. Not necessarily solely towards me, but towards military spouses in general. I’ve been an Air Force wife for about 3 years now. In the grand scheme of things, I’m brand spanking new to this whole “military life” thing. I started a blog in the beginning of this crazy adventure and used it as an outlet for all of my thoughts and feelings about this new world as well as a way to connect with what I considered my new family.
Perhaps this was naïve of me, because eventually it all backfired and I am left with nothing to write about except my feelings of betrayal from the community I once held dear. Shortly after Noah, my husband, got back from basic training and tech school (totaling 6 months of separation between us) I thought it would be wonderful to get professional portraits done commemorating our one year anniversary and my husband’s subsequent successful start as an Airman. He looked handsome in his dress blues and I kept it simple in a casual black sundress and wedges that I had purchased specifically for the occasion. I was thrilled with the results and could not wait to share them on my blog with the many military spouse friends that I had already made. Having these photos to look back on has been a major highlight of mine, which is why it is all the more devastating that it has been tainted for both my husband and I.
Fast forward 2 years and the photos in that one simple blog post were all but forgotten. That is, until I got an odd text from a friend one morning informing me that she saw something on Facebook and if it were her, she would want to know. Queue the confusion. I didn’t know what she had been referring to until a follow up text was sent and one of my beautiful photos of my husband holding me in his arms popped up, only it wasn’t the same… it had been turned into a hurtful “meme” that said “you had me at Tricare.”