My Story: Blogs by Four Military Teens

My Story: Blogs by Four Military Teens by Michelle D. Sherman, Ph.D is a series of blogs by four military teens that highlights their feelings and experiences before, during, and after parental deployment. It provides support and education for all military teens and pre-teens by honoring their unique joys and sacrifices, addressing their fears and hopes, and exploring how parental deployment affects their lives. Although the four youth in My Story are fictional, the stories are real—the blogs are a compilation of real life experiences of military kids we have been honored to meet and learn from.

The blogs in My Story address issues such as:

• Pride in parent’s military service
• Sadness, anger and confusion regarding deployments
• The excitement of homecoming
• Challenges of reconnecting after deployment
• Finding a "new normal"
• Teen depression
• Dealing with parent’s emotional and physical challenges (e.g., PTSD, substance abuse, injury)
• Divorce
• Resilience and post traumatic growth

"My Story opened my eyes to what it’s like for a kid whose parent is in the military. It would be really hard to have my mom or dad gone to a war zone for so long and miss out on all my football games, choir concerts, and well, my every day life. I have a lot more respect for military kids now—I seriously had no idea!"
Adam Shepard, 16, Rosemount High School.

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