You may think that calling somebody a brat is rude and highly uncalled for. However, in the case of a military child, it is perfectly fine. Military B.R.A.T stands for British Regiment Attached Traveler. This term can be traced all the way back to the 1700’s, but was more widely used after World War I. This term means that my parent, in my case my dad, is a part of the Army and I go wherever he goes with a few exceptions. One of the only exceptions is if my dad is deployed (on a mission to a foreign country). Since my dad’s job in the Army takes us all over the world and we move every 2-3 years, it makes it hard to answer the question where I’m from. When military brats get together they don’t ask other military brats where they are from. Instead, they ask where their parents are from and where they were last stationed (meaning where their parent was assigned to do their job and where their family last lived).
As a military brat you move a lot and moving becomes easier as you move more, but leaving your friends never becomes easier. The best thing about this is that you learn to be more flexible with your surroundings. Even if you have never moved in your life, you can still imagine how hard it is, but to move overseas it doubles the chaos. I have moved a total of six times and have lived in two countries and six states.
The pros of being a military brat is that you get to experience all the things that a lot of kids don’t normally get to experience. More of the pros are that your dad has a really cool job, and he saves the world and keeps us safe. Another cool perk to being a military brat is when you turn 10 (the holy grail of birthdays for a military brat) you get to have this amazing card called a military ID. The ID will get you into all the army facilities and allows you to shop at the commissary (military grocery store) for after school snacks without your parents. All these pros are awesome, but the biggest pro is that you become a part of this big military community that supports each other and helps each other through hard times. We military brats know what it's like to not be able to grow our roots too deep, but the roots we do grow stretch far and wide and give us all the support we need.
Image Source: https://www.defense.gov/