Ah, PCS time, one of the few predictable things in a life full of the unpredictable. You will more likely than not be moving at some point as a military family, or rather PCSing.
I can’t tell you where, I can’t tell you when, but I can tell you the longer your servicemember stays in the more likely it’s going to happen and when it does it’s going to be a rollercoaster of emotions. Here are just a few things you’ll experience when awaiting your next PCS.
1. Frustration Phase
The military phrase “hurry up and wait” is one military spouses grow to know all too well and it is never more fitting than when applied towards a PCS. You know your family is moving sometime soon, but you have no idea when or even where for that matter, sometimes all the way up until just a few months before you leave. Until you get your orders, you just have to “hurry up and wait.”
2. Denial Phase
You find yourself clinging to the hope that maybe you won’t actually have to leave your current duty station and can stay where you’re at. While it’s true this can sometimes happen, chances are you’ll have to transfer.
3. Relief Phase
When you finally receive your orders, you can’t help but feel relieved to at least finally have an idea of where you’re going, even if it’s not the duty station you preferred.
4. Sadness Phase
You can’t help but be sad to leave your current duty station, especially since sometimes it feels like it’s not until the end of your time somewhere that you feel finally settled there. There’s nothing like an upcoming PCS to make you feel nostalgic about a place you haven’t even left yet.
5. Bucket List Phase
Once you have those Orders in hand, the feeling of leaving becomes as real as the rush of anxiety that you need to do all the things you meant to do at your current duty station before you leave. All those “one day we’ll go there” ideas become we need to do this NOW.
