MiliBrats,The PI, and community

I have had the most amazing honor to reconnect.  A part of my youth, that I thought I only would have memories of has surfaced.  I have recently had the opportunity to reconnect with people who had the EXACT same experiences as me growing up.
I know, I know, you think to yourself that childhood for most is the same.  We grow, learn, and become the people we are through the experiences of our childhood and youth.  Yes, we do become who we are from our experiences.  But as any adult will tell another, those experiences are different for just about everyone. Being a Military Brat is as extreme as it gets as far as experiences go.
I have said before that I'm a military brat, I have explained all the moving.  How that affected me emotionally.  But, what I don't think I have been able to convey, until now, is how lost I was after my family hit Life stateside.
We were not a family that got to go where everyone else was that we were stationed with overseas.  We went far away from anyone that we had contact with.  My dad didn't do this maliciously, he did what he thought was right.  He knew how much the world was changing, how different it was from when he grew up.  I think he thought that if he brought us home, to where he grew up, we would have a fighting chance at a Life less interrupted by corruption, of all kinds.
That meant some really serious displacement for myself and my sisters.  My middle sister hit her stride here stateside.  Clubs, sports, choir, Cum Laude, the whole bit.  It was hard to be one of the ten non-white kids in school, but she trudged pasted it. The baby sissy, so adaptable.  She is still like that today!!!
Me, I felt lost.  Out of place.  Thank the Goddess for those few people that helped me adjust.  If you are reading this, you know who you are.  I'm so grateful to have had you looking out for me then and a really lucky girl to have you in my life still now!!
I got into contact with a few kids I knew in the PI, Philippine Islands.  If there were ever a group of MiliBrats that are in, and of themselves, this is the group.  We talk now and then on FB, then one of them started a group site on there.  More folks found me....I KNOW....ME!!!
We have been reminiscing ever since.  For so long, I have been without contact.  I really didn't think any of these people would remember who I was.  As the requests started coming in, I had an overwhelming sense of relief and hope.
Relief, that all those wonderful memories and friendships were not dreams.  Illusions that I had made up.  They were in fact VERY real!!  And those ghosts of people so fond in my memories were indeed alive and very, very well!!
Hope, because as a mistisa, (half white-half Filipino) growing up in a white dominated society, you sometimes lose yourself in it all.  Your white side goes on overdrive and you forget that wonderful and CRAZY Flip side.  I can't remember how many times I told my mom I feel lost and with just a few stories of the province and life there, I would remember who I am.  Thanks Mom.
Still, it was a grand way of Life there on Cubi Point/Subic Naval Airbase.  Most of the kids there were halfsies like me, their moms had crazy habits just like mine.  We looked like each other, knew what kind of pressures were waiting at home for us.
I feel like I have been given back a place in a very elite community.  It didn't matter to MiliBrats if our dads were different ranks, or that officer kids lived in a different part of housing.  We were buddies, even if we weren't in the same circles, we still rallied in circles for each other when we had too.  Which leads me to my Thankful Thursday of the week....hope you stay tuned.