ChristinaOrr
Of course, you can never think of your family as being your real family. Everyone has and had someone in their lives that looked after them, and now has seen them go to a work job that separates them for years, with questionable thoughts that kept circling: 'Will they come back?', 'Have they forgotten about me?', 'Will they be happy?, 'Will they be the same when they get back?' All of them really had something in common: Will their person ever be the same after joining the military? Natalie could always give them a response if asked, and that response would be no.
No matter how long you're there in service, there will always be a part of you stripped away from the field and back to your home. Whether it's nightmares, passion, love, emotions, or mental issues, it can be as little as one small thing for you to be a completely different entity to people you once knew as your anchor and home.
Natalie could never understand why she hadn't put herself on that list, even before considering joining the army. She felt she lacked a purpose in life aside from simply getting through high school or college. That was her parents' dream, and with their passing, it felt as though that dream had died with them.