#first deployment

1. Communicate! I see a lot of people feel as though they can't express their anxiety or worry or sadness to their person who is deployed, but it will be better for both of you & your relationship if you communicate these things to one another.

2. Dont count down days unless you're under 30 (or some smaller number). I used the Deployment app, it does a percentage and I looked at it once a week because then it really felt like time had progressed. Paychecks also work. 

3. Surround yourself with people you love, and can get you through it. My husband and I live away from all of our family and I have just a few friends but still it was nice to be surrounded by people every once and a while. 

4 Keep busy. Take classes, work a lot, take up a new hobby, anything like that will make time go by so much faster. 

5. Make care packages! Care packages are so much fun, and it feels great to make a box specifically for your person, knowing that they're going to open it, and they make your SO happy. 

6. Try to manage your fears and worries. You just have to remember that in that moment of fear nothing bad has happened, and in that moment your person is okay and healthy, and just hold on to that.