Posting/PCS season is upon us! May the odds be ever in your favour. We got our posting message this past week, and are excited to be moving onto our next chapter.
Valcartier has been fun, and we’ll likely be back, but now we’re off to the booming metropolis of Gagetown, NB. So if you’re local, look me up!
Posting/PCS season is a magical time full of stress, dust, meltdowns, frustrated conversations with Brookfield. Sometimes it feels like a miracle when you walk into your home on the other end and haven’t lost a box, a child, or had the cat run away at a gas station in Rimouski.
Hopefully you’ve been waiting for a message and one wasn’t sprung on you. There’s nothing worse than having to uproot your life when you’re not expecting it, but that’s part of military life.
We can complain all we want, but in the end the movers wait for no one- especially if you’re late getting to your end destination.
You know it’s posting season if:
- Everyone you meet at the base grocery store, in the Facebook groups, and at daycare is suddenly an expert on moving. They know the ins and outs of the posting regulations and seem to think only they have the truth about what gets reimbursed and what is covered. Not only that, but their cousin once got a horse shipped gross country.
- DH is conveniently scheduled to be away for the next couple of months.
- You’re digging through files to find your POA – if it isn’t handy already – because there will be reams of paperwork to sign. So many signatures will be required, and then when you think you can’t sign your name again, someone will produce a new form.
- You suddenly see 30 new “FOR SALE” signs on your drive to get coffee. Everyone is moving, which means you’ll have tough competition for selling your place…. great.
- You’re prepping your belongings for the move and you find stickers from the last move- or even more rare – two moves ago.
- You start hoarding and collecting a pile of random items to be moved with you to your new location. All this while simultaneously purging all the crap you’ve collected since the last move.
- Your friends start putting you in touch with people at your new location. Trading in friendships and base contacts is as much our game as it is a professional one for our partners. If you’re lucky, you’ve got someone to meet for coffee.
- Your DIT/HHT is now the most anticipated part of the next 3 months. It’s time in a hotel without the pets, maybe the kids, and it’s all paid for. Granted, you have a million and one things to do, but at least you can order room service and jump on the beds at the end of the day.
- The excitement of a fresh start and a new routine is starting to take hold. Much like the new year, you’ve made resolutions for how you’re going to go to the gym on base, do more walking, and drink less coffee. Oh sweet, sweet, child, you can always try.
- You’re sad to be leaving your friends, hair-stylist, and waxer. The three most important parts of any posting. Without them you are lost. It takes months, sometimes YEARS to find people who you’ll let touch your hair or do your eyebrows, let alone confide in. Hopefully you can get some referrals from people at your new location.
- You are terrified by the prospect of having to go through the process of transferring your health card, drivers license, doctor, mailing address info, insurance and tax information. Again.
What are your tell-tale signs for posting season?
