On the 21st of April my father is leaving for his third deployment. When I was the age of five he was deployed for the first time to Iraq. I was around eight/nine the second deployment which was also Iraq. He will be leaving for Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas first for about a week/two weeks. After that week in Fort Bliss he will be leaving for Afghanistan for nine months. Once he has done his nine months time in Afghanistan he will go back for Fort Bliss for another week or so. After that he will finally be able to come home.

This is not the first time he has left to go overseas for the Army. I was much younger the first time and it was really hard on me then. I was used to seeing my dad everyday. I was used to playing with him everyday. I was used to eating dinner with him every night back then, waiting at the family room window everyday to watch for his car when he would come home from work, hearing his voice everyday. It was a lot of pressure for a five year old child. I was not used to my dad being gone for a year. It pained me many times. He missed holidays, birthdays, school activities/events. I got many letters, cards, and little gifts mailed from him over the time he was in Iraq. I still have all the letters, holiday cards, and birthday cards in a “treasure box”. He would Skype my mother and I, but Skyping someone is never the same as them being right there with you. But I was grateful for the nights where I got to Skype with my father for a little while.

The second time my father was deployed I was around the age of eight/nine. I vividly remember the day he came home from that deployment. I was sitting on this little wooden chair that went with a little wooden desk we have in our family room. I cannot remember how long I sat on that chair, but I sat there for a good while staring out of the window. Pupcakes, my favorite stuffed animal, was on my lap the whole time. We both had our chin on the windowsill waiting for my dad to come home. I remember not wearing glasses that day. I remember constantly asking my mom, “When is he going to get here?” & “How much longer?”

The two years my dad was away in Iraq felt like nine million years to me. I hope that this time whilst he is away in Afghanistan for a year that it will go by fast. I think that because I was 5 years old the first time it felt so much longer. Then the second time when I was about nine felt extremely long too but that at long as the first time. Since this is his third deployment I hope it does not feel as long as the other two deployments. Maybe it will go by faster now that I am older and the days always seem to be flying by. There are a few things that I am bummed about. He will miss my seventeenth birthday. I never really do anything for my birthday. Each parent takes me to a restaurant that I love and really want to go to then we do gifts when we get home. He has missed my birthday before on account of a deployment. But this one just seems different. I do not remember the time he missed it when I was little. I only have pictures from that birthday and his card that he mailed me. I feel like I will remember this one later on because I am older. I will not blame him or anything for missing it. He is a part of the Army, this is his job, it is what he is told to do by the Army. I will just miss him a lot.

I will miss my dad whilst he is away. We have a lot of fun together on the days that I am with him. I am pretty close to my dad so him being away for a year almost will really affect me.