The Military Brat – Amanda Moore

Gallery • 3 Photos

Emm

The most important aspect in a child’s life is the feeling of being grounded, for Amanda Moore sadly this wasn’t the case. Military families move around quite often, but how does that affect developmental skills in kids? Amanda is a junior at Arlington high school she has lived in Tennessee for only a few years. She’s had her fair share of moving around the United States from California, to Oregon, to Texas, finally putting roots in Arlington, TN. It’s a well known fact that people in military families do have struggles but many don’t realize that by simply choosing a certain career path can harm their children and eventually them. “The military isn’t something that should be glamorized, I’m very thankful for those who have served but people throwing themselves into this, and telling people about all the positives just isn’t right.” Being at a vulnerable age (between infancy and adolescence) and always worrying if your father would come home don’t form a good solution. Amanda’s father lived in poverty in high school. while very intelligent the fact of the matter was he couldn’t afford to go to college so instead he joined the military. Early on he displayed many behaviors that correlated with OCD and ADHD, while he was undiagnosed those behaviors became very profound due to his current environment. Some of the most prominent fixations were throughly checking the locks on the doors, the cameras, when he would start an assignment it had to be perfection and if not he would keep trying over and over, in the eyes of the military this wasn’t a disorder it was a God send. His obsessive compulsions were used to make their unit more efficient even though it wasn’t helping him grow and become a stronger hero for our country. The work he did though was incredibly important which helped him rise through the ranks. He wasn’t just a dirt-poor high schooler anymore he was a success, raising the standards for people in his unit and his family.