The MAMF June 2025 Facebook Banner

June is a month that encompasses several events and celebrations. It is PCS (Permanent Change of Station) month for many military families, it contains Flag Day, and it is when summer vacation begins for BRATs around the world.

It is also Pride Month, which is a little tricky right now because of the current political climate. Although I create their banners and write this blog, I do not speak for the Museum of the American Military Family. The opinions expressed in this blog are entirely and strictly my own. Speaking only for myself, I choose to celebrate Pride Month regardless of (perhaps in spite of) the current political climate.

This month’s banner was a challenge because I had to pull so many concepts together in one image: PCS month, summer vacation, Flag Day, and Pride Month. However, one of my absolute favorite art quotes is this:

“The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.” ~Orson Welles

Many people think that art means “the sky’s the limit.” However, Orson said that if we have all the time in the world, all the money in the world, and everything we need all the time, without limitation, we would never create anything. The reason for that is that we only get creative when we do not have everything we need, and when we are severely limited. No one stretches and grows in a comfort zone.

That is an apt metaphor for not only the current political climate, but also for military personnel and BRATs. For the sake of something bigger than ourselves, we are/were always pulling up roots, leaving old friends behind, moving to somewhere new, making new friends, all while knowing we would only be in that new place for two to three years at most.

That made us tough, flexible, and resilient.

Right now, I am winding down my school year and preparing to move two thousand miles east for a better paying teaching job. I am an art teacher in the lowest paying state in the country, where we also have the highest housing costs in the country. I am at the top of the teacher pay scale with a good five to ten years of working life left in me. That’s a financial dead end. So, I’m moving. I’ve been packing for weeks. It has been stressful.

However, in the middle of the packing and the stress, I have found myself eagerly anticipating being on the other side of the move, making new friends and working with new colleagues. There will be new things to see and do. It has felt a lot like the PCS experience of my youth!

In fact, it seems to me that having been a BRAT who moved every two to three years as a child has made me more open and less resistant to thinking in new directions, meeting new people, and embracing new horizons.

So, with summer vacation and a two thousand mile drive in a Uhaul truck in front of me, I am looking forward to new adventures. One does not have to be a BRAT or in the military to create a vibrant, colorful, and exciting life for oneself, but having that history can surely make it easier.

By the time I write the next MAMF Banner blog, I’ll be on the other side of that journey.

What adventures will you create for yourself this summer? Make something wonderful happen!

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Credits and attribution for the elements used to create this month’s banner:

The photo of the school belongs to Dr. Circe Olson Woessner. Bad Hersfeld American School was part of the DoDEA East District when her children attended there.

The image of the children playing in the paint came from StockCake and is a public domain image. I thought it was perfect for this month’s banner as it presents children playing while also soaked in a rainbow of paint. This made it possible for me to honor pride month in a different way. Being an art teacher, I love the paint!

The image of the two dandelion fluffs in the field of red flowers came from Goodfon and is also a public domain image.

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