Comfort food, jokes, hugs, and plenty of smiles, are some of the tools of the trade every Morale Officer will use to support their families.
Some people will live their whole lives in the same place they were born and raised. Yes, they move when the time comes for upsizing or downsizing, but always within the limits of the all-too-familiar town or city.
I always thought I would live my whole life in the same city, or at least the same country: The Dominican Republic. But that did not pan out. In 2007 my wife accepted an offer to work at Colgate-Palmolive headquarters in New York, and the whole family, dog included, followed her as she moved on to better and bigger things. What I did not know at the time, was that there was a catch: to reach the “bigger and better things” stage, the whole family had to swim through a sea of frowny faces, bad days, and homesickness.
Brace yourself
Please understand that any international relocation is a huge undertaking. It is not just about moving your belongings from one country to another. It is a “sink or swim” process, where you are thrown into a language and culture different from the ones you were born into. Simple tasks that you had mastered eons ago, such as scheduling a medical appointment or setting up utilities, become a nerve-racking experience in your new life, due to the language barrier.
My main concern with the whole international relocation process was that I did not feel like I had a sense of purpose. My wife had her job. My kids had their schools. And then there was me, 40 years old and not too happy with the idea of becoming a stay-at-home dad.
A Morale Officer is born
I was not appointed Morale Officer in a formal ceremony. Rather, the Universe bestowed such an important title upon me at the break of dawn, while I was walking Bellota, our beloved pug dog. In the blink of an eye, I was no longer worried about myself. Only my family's well-being was paramount. I felt like a new person with the sole purpose of providing a safe and happy space for my wife and kids, where they could transition to a new culture, without forgetting their roots.
Best job ever
My shift as Morale Officer would start at 5:30 am. I would get dressed and walk my wife to the bus stop so that she could catch the 6:20 am to New York. I would wait until she got on the bus and then I would walk back home to wake up my 3 children. What I am about to say may sound hard to believe, but the truth is that I would wake them up in different ways every day. Sometimes I tickled them, sometimes I used corny jokes, sometimes I would make up quirky songs, and, my favorite, fairy tales of my creation, like “The Boy with the Rain Barrel Head” and “Bellota’s Curled Up Tail.” The only downside of those stories I came up with on the spot is that I always had a hard time remembering them later.
The hardest part during the relocation process was accepting that I could not fight all of my family’s battles for them. I wanted to be with my wife in her new place of work. I wanted to be with my kids at their new school. I wanted to shield them from whatever harm could come their way.
To this day I feel grateful for having been able to stand in my wife and kids’ corner. Each one of them fought bravely in the process of mastering a new language and embracing a new culture. I know they went through plenty of hard stuff. Sometimes they would tell me about it, but other times they would rather suffer in silence so that I would not worry.
They were, and still are, real troopers. ☼
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Alex Guerrero is a content creator who lives in Lawrence, KS. He’s very vocal in his displeasure over pineapple pizza. Chocolate, on the other hand, makes everything better!
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