After a three-day search, we found an apartment in Tacoma. Unpacking didn’t take long in our new place. Returning our U-Haul to a drop-off place took about the same amount of time as unloading our one couch, one bed, a closet full of clothes, and a couple of TVs.
“Finally roommates,” I said as I plopped down on the couch next to Paige in our new 700-square-foot apartment.
“Yep, it only took eight months of marriage and a move across the country, but we are finally roomies,” she quipped back with a sideways glance as she stared at the empty wall.
PAIGE
The Army wastes no time when it’s time for a family to go to a new duty station. It was mind-boggling that I was now a resident in Washington state when ten days ago I had not even packed my stuff to move. In nine days, we had packed up our homes, driven across the United States, and found this little place. On report day at JBLM, Josh gave me a kiss goodbye around 4:30 a.m., and I wished him good luck on his first day. I couldn’t go back to sleep because I still wasn’t used to the time change. I sighed, remembering that I was stuck in our new apartment all day because Josh took our only car to work. I walked to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and back, watched TV, and rearranged our drawers. After Josh’s second day of work, I told him I wanted to find a job.
I quickly found the coolest job: hanging out with elementary school kids before and after school in a YMCA program. The hours and the kids were so awesome. I loved spending time with them. Since we only had one car, I had to learn how to use the city transit system. I got on the bus every day at 5:30 a.m. and rode to my stop with some of Tacoma’s most interesting people. Most people who rode that early typically slept on the bus. They’d hop on the bus when the routes start around 3:00 a.m. and ride back and forth throughout the city until someone woke them up and told them to get off at the main stop. These people were nothing like those in my community back in Alabama. In Tacoma were likable characters like Mags, who kept a flying squirrel in her bra, and Tap, who was always trying to sell me some of his “art” so he could buy more weed (I’m not speculating; that’s what he told me he needed it for). But there was also a voodoo witch who cast spells and spit on people as they got on; I didn’t care much for her.
The Pacific Northwest also had another amazing surprise for this young transplant—great volleyball! Everyone knew how to play. I signed up for every tournament in every format there was. I played with some amazing players. One day I was approached about coaching a junior club team. I thought, Why not? Having busy weekends might make this deployment go faster. I was invited to a coaches’ meeting at Lake Tapps Volleyball Club. All the coaches sat around a table and discussed upcoming events for tryouts and fundraisers. One coach in particular seemed to really dominate the room: Mandy Flores-Handley, but everyone called her Flo. She asked for explanations of a few things and brought up several things we still needed to plan. I wasn’t sure if her face knew how to not be so intense. Her husband, Shane, on the other hand, seemed super friendly and chipper. Either way, I was intimidated. Two days later, I found out she and I would be coaching the sixteen and under team together.
JOSH
At Walter Reed, it was easy to think about paths not taken when all we had was time to sit around and be consumed by our own thoughts, memories, and “what could have been” daydreams. Now Paige and I were looking at a future that was entirely different than either of us had ever imagined following our move from Alabama to Fort Bragg to Tacoma. Paige was living out of a suitcase, and I was still barely even wearing clothes. A shirt was pretty standard, but pants were now obviously pointless. I would wheel around in boxers or basketball shorts, and I hadn’t seen a pair of my own shoes since my combat boots on May 31.
I loved being in the Army, but it’s a love that is hard to explain. Before I joined, I had half-heartedly tried everything—college, sports, working a job—but it all seemed like I was just trying to pass the time. I had fun and made great friends with the people I met in all these segments of my life, but there was nothing that meant so much to me that I was fully devoted to it. Because of that, I squandered many opportunities. I hated to sit in a classroom and listen to someone talk for two hours, so I didn’t go to my college classes most days. After a few years of that, I found myself on academic probation. It sounds so awful to say this, but I was sort of relieved when school was out of the picture. I came home and worked the same job I had
