What ‘thank you for your service’ means to military kids
Kids who grow up in military families are accustomed to making sacrifices for their parents’ careers. (Army National Guard/Master Sgt. Becky Vanshur)
When Mitchell Matella’s dad got orders to move from California to Maryland right before the teen’s senior year of high school, Matella was faced with a slew of difficult choices: start over at a new school with only one year left, stay with relatives in California or ask his father to go alone.
Instead, Matella started taking extra classes to graduate early. At 16, he finished high school and moved across the country, keeping his family together.
That’s just one example of the sacrifices the now 17-year-old has made growing up in a Navy family, which he discussed in a recent episode of The Spouse Angle podcast during an interview with fellow military kid Kathryn Alonso. Both are winners of the Operation Homefront 2022 Military Child of the Year award.
The conversation comes at a time when many Americans thank military kids for their service as a part of Month of the Military Child, celebrated in April each year.
Alonso, a high school senior in Virginia, said the biggest sacrifice she’s made for her father’s Coast Guard career has been leaving family and friends behind every few years.
“Having to move and completely start over, join a whole new community and meet a ton of new friends,” she said. “That’s really hard,”
In addition to moving, having a parent deploy or knowing they could deploy on a moment’s notice can take its toll on military kids, Matella said. Yet through it, he’s learned not to take any time with his family for granted.
Mitchell Matella and Kathryn Alonso are recipients of the Operation Homefront 2020 Military Child of the Year Award. (Operation Homefront)
While people often refer to military kids and family members as “resilient,” Matella wants them to know, “It’s not because we’re just born that way.”
“It really comes from having relationships with others, seeing our parents, helping them, having them help us through every move, through every struggle that we have together,” he said. “That really creates us into being resilient.”