With the start of the new school year, it is worthwhile to remember that some children are starting a new school in a foreign land. The language, customs and culture are different. The American child is a minority.

Their neighborhood is an interesting but strange place. What sports will they play? What about Girl/Boy Scouts? Where are their grandparents, aunts and uncles? Where are their friends from the first grade? Do they even remember their friends from those early years? Where is the grocery store and the baseball field?

How do these remarkable children adjust? How do they assimilate into this peculiar place? How do they make new friends knowing their time in this foreign land is transitory?

But they do adjust, with the love and support of their parents and distant family. These are some of the challenges the children of our military families confront.

Last Monday, our grandchildren went to their first day of school in Brussels, Belgium. Last year, it was Kansas. The year before, it was Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

We wish to salute all the resilient children of our military families deployed abroad.

David Beckman

Boothbay Harbor


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