R&R: A Two-Week Roller Coaster Ride

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Rest and Recuperation, better known as R&R, is one of the most anticipated segments of a deployment. Your loved one can come home for two weeks or you can meet them somewhere else. After having been through R&R recently I have a lot of posts planned about it. It is definitely something military spouses and significant others think a lot about and do a lot of planning for.

If I could describe what R&R feels like it would be comparing it to going to an amusement park to ride the newest, wildest roller coaster. In the days before you go, you start getting so excited you can't think straight. Then the day comes and you are giddy -- your loved one arrives (you stand at the foot of the roller coaster). You greet each other and step onto the roller coaster. The roller coaster climbs, spins, dives, and twists and you loving every minute of it for two full weeks, surrounded by people and constant noise and activity. The are voices coming at you from every direction. Everyone is fully engrossed in the moment.

Then R&R (your roller coaster ride) comes to an abrupt, screeching, jolting stop. This is the moment when your loved one walks through the doors to the plane out of your sight. And there you stand on the roller coaster platform, suddenly standing stick still, not knowing what to do with yourself. You're dizzy, exhausted, topsy-turvy, bewildered and lost. Suddenly everything has stopped moving, it's quiet, there are no crowds around you, no one cheering and hollering. Everything stops. You figure it's time to  wind your way through the meandering exit, out the front gates and back to your car. Everything inside you is still spinning but the world outside is holding very still...and they are gone again and you go back to your "we can do it" deployment survival camp and carry on. But happily, you are rejuvenated with wonderful fresh memories to carry you through.