"Friends buy you lunch, best friends eat your lunch." -AnonymousMoving to a new place is always tough, especially when you’re PCSing. There’s so much that can stress you out: moving to a new state, anticipating your spouse asking you constantly where all of their belongings are when you don’t even know where your stuff is, the drive, the moving company breaking or stealing your stuff, trying to find all the liquor stores, and even worse; trying to find friends to drink that whole liquor store with you. When I first moved up here I thought I would never find friends. We lived off post so I never was on post to interact, I didn’t know anything about being a military wife; how to interact, how to talk, who to talk to, who not to talk to. Now, me being an awkward turtle, I was never going to make friends, so my husband forced me into friendships which was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. 1. Best way to make friends is through your husband! You’re probably thinking “what the heck are you talking about?” Well, my first ever friend here was my husband’s co worker’s wife (I know, a mouthful). They worked the roads together constantly and decided they needed to set their wives up so my first ever friendship here goes out to my girl, Kayla. Without her I would have never gained any confidence. I was so meek, and scared to even go on post, so she dragged my ass onto post showed me around, and we became the best of friends. We bonded over our love for animals and food (well mostly her loving to cook and me loving to eat)(which means I mostly ate all her food). Her and I have gone on many adventures: exploring our surrounding areas, making a road trip to North Carolina, trips to the dog parks, beaching, and once again her feeding me constantly (shout out to you for being the real MVP). Kayla, wasn’t the only one I befriended through my husband either. Steph, another MP Army wife, and I became amazing friends! Steph and I love to indulge in Steph feeding me, bitching about how our husbands hunt too much, and getting puppy kisses from Leo. After attending my first Platoon Family Event (first one in the three years we've been married) I met one of my best friend's Emily. We've been through so much together, and I'm so glad that I went to that event and met her. I can't imagine life without her in it. 2. Join all the “Army Wife” pages. Two of my greatest friends Victoria and Julie, we actually met through the “Army Wives of Fort Drum” page. I met Victoria when I was complaining about how some girl in my husbands company ruined our gender reveal, and she came to my side, and she hasn’t left since. Julie I met through making a post about wanting more play dates for my son, and we never turned back. Just fair warning you, I wasn’t kidding when I said "complain.” On the army wives pages, people bitch and complain A LOT. However, you will gain a lot of advice and insight from a lot of women from all over the place. They’ll answer any questions you have, or troll on your questions (it happens to the best of us). 3. Get involved. Go to the parties, go to the events, get out of your comfort zone. People host parties all the time to meet new people, GO! Every month I hold a party at my house to meet new people, wine and gossip are a good recipe for making friends. 4. Go to dinner. Because Kaitie loves food, and who doesn’t want to make new friends over dinner. Post on the Army Wives Page “anyone want to get dinner?” and you’ll have 382 responses, I know because that’s how many I got. No joke 382. Like I can’t afford that much dinner. 5. Go to school or get a job. I went to college and found my BFF’s (best friend forever) there. A Navy Wife, Courtney, and a cook, Danielle. Yes, I became friends with a cook, makes sense right? Courtney’s actually a baker. Which is super ironic, since I love to eat. I actually needed Danielle, I had zero idea how to cook, and without her I probably would have starved to death, and she definitely would have let me. I also got two jobs, and one of my best friends came from my work. She’s actually the one who highly encouraged me to breast feed, and has been helping me along the way. She has been my backbone (besides V of course) through my whole pregnancy and breastfeeding epidemic. She’s also that friend that smacks me around when she knows I’m being dumb (you always need that one friend, and Lynnea is that one friend). She actually just smacked me around for spending four days with Mastitis and not trying to take care of it. Yes, I know I was stupid, yes that’s why she gave me her mom look. Trust me, you don’t want her mom look. She sits there with her hands on her hips, and gives you those stern eyes and says “Really, Kaitie?” She’ll actually probably do it to me after she’s done reading my blog, love your face! 6. Buy stuff off the base’s buy/sell pages. I know this sounds extremely strange, but my other best friend Margie I met from the buy sell page. When I was about 22 weeks pregnant, I made a post on the site called “Fort Drum Freebies” looking for maternity clothes, well lovely Margie over here commented and gave me a pair of maternity pants, and what was supposed to take only five minutes to pick up, turned into an hour of talking about pregnancy woes, our husbands, and just life in general. Margie then became my most loyal friend, and when we met Victoria, two became three, and our trio was complete. On a side note, Margie wasn’t the only one I became friends with off the Fort Drum site! I also met my friends Amanda and Brittany, off there too! Brittany started off as just us paying her to take our pictures. After our first time of working with her, we knew we had to keep her and not just as our photographer, we had to keep her as our friend. So now she comes with us every where as part of our lovely group of minions. 7. Explore places that interest you. Last but not least, we’ll talk about how I met my girl, Brittany. She’s my sarcastic friend, always making jokes, will make you laugh even when you thought you’d never laugh again. I met her at the Dog Park on post. She went all the time, and when I was pregnant I’d sit at the picnic tables and she’d sit and talk to me while our dogs played. Now she pretty much lives at my house, she babysits Jackson for me, and of course, she bakes me cookies.
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AuthorKaitie Bergeron. Mom. Wife. Wine Lover. World-Traveler. Photography Enthusiast. CategoriesArchives |