Memoirs of an Air Force Brat

This weekend my mom gave me a photo of me and my brother Donovan that was taken at Hanauma Bay in Hawaii when I was in 6th grade. We were living there at the time. It made me start thinking of the places I lived growing up and what a time line would look like. So I typed one out and thought it would be interesting to share. I included brief description of exactly where these place are.

• Born in Panama City, Florida on January 21, 1971. (Panama City is in the panhandle of FL)
  
• The time between Florida and Ocean Springs my parents were in Virginia for a year, but I don't really remember it at all.
  
• Kindergarten until 5th grade in Ocean Springs, Mississippi (about 10 miles from Biloxi on the Gulf of Mexico)
• 6th grade was in Hickam AFB, Oahu, Hawaii (less than a mile from Pearl Harbor, about 10 miles from Honolulu)
• 7-9th grade was in Riverside, California (about 50 miles east of Los Angeles)
• 10th grade until 2003 the suburbs of Dallas, TX

So that's where I spent my school days growing up. My dad was in the Air Force for over 20 years, and they made him move around about every 3-5 years or so.

Each place left interesting memories with me. In Biloxi I remember the fierce thunder storms that would roll in from the Gulf, driving over to New Orleans and smelling the sweetness and stink of that amazing city, or driving over to Pensacola to watch the sunrise on the beach with the seagulls and sandpipers. In Hawaii I loved boogie boarding at the beach when a light rain shower with no clouds in the sky would float by. In Riverside I liked going up to Big Bear Mountain to collect fresh spring water in jugs that streamed out of a pipe someone had drilled into the rocks.

When I was young it was a bit hard to be the "new kid in school", but now that I'm older I appreciate the fact that I got a chance to live in all these different places.