Hello there, my name is Samira, I am 17 years old and my family and I are currently posted to Ottawa Ontario. I was born in Edmonton, Alberta and have moved about 7 or 8 times in my lifetime.
I am known as a Military BRAT. (Born, Raised And Transferred). My father retired from the military in 2017 and resides in BC. My mother is still serving as a Master Warrant Officer, Medical Technician Trade Advisor.
Growing up it was easy moving around a lot. I would make lots of new friends, all while getting to see most of our beautiful country. I got to experience what it was like living in big cities, I got to live by the ocean and even faced Ontario’s harsh cold winters.
Although it wasn’t till I got older when I started to struggle with the postings. I was about 10 years old when we first moved to Victoria, British Columbia, from Borden, Ontario. I found it harder to leave my friends and struggled in school with the different province curriculums.
Once we moved to Victoria, my family and I decided to live off base in a town called Sooke. My parents commute to work took an hour each way. They would leave early in the morning and come home late just so my brother and I could go to a school close by. Which resulted in my brother and I staying over at friends houses a lot after school till our parents got home. My mother was on the HMCS Calgary at the time so she was away lots. She is like my best friend, so I struggled with that a lot as well.
While my parents were at work, after school my brother and I would always go over to our friends house down the road. They were our closest family friends. Their mother was like a second mother to us while my mother was deployed. She was always there for me and helped me feel better when I missed my mother.
After 4 years in Sooke, we moved back to Ontario. I found the move here much harder than when we left Bodern because I was much older. I was a freshman in high school, with no friends, in a new town.
I was so upset about moving, on top of my parents recent separation that I began to fail some of my classes. I would stay home a lot and actually ended up missing 42/93 days in one semester. I was then placed into therapy and that next semester I only missed 4/93 days that semester and am much more focused on graduating now.
I have been through so much being a Military BRAT but I wouldn’t change it for a thing. There have been ups and downs but it is because of those postings and experiences that made me who I am today.
Thank you for taking time to read this 🙂
Tanya Packer 