The Infamous Boat-stache

I am officially saying "bye-bye" to the boat-stache and I have to admit, I was a little sad about it! After 36 days of seeing it, I surprised myself and kind of grew fond of it. Alright, alright I secretly LOVED it! (Although I think I might be the only one because everyone else in our extended family is glad to see it go!)

So what is a "boat-stache"? In advanced jet training (the phase of flight school Rob is in), one of the culminating events is landing the jet on a moving boat in the ocean. The tradition is when the class in front of you successfully lands on the boat and you are now the senior class preparing for the boat, you begin growing your mustache. You don't shave your mustache until you successfully land on the boat, and the cycle continues with the next class.

As you can imagine, mustaches are very common in Meridian. It's a tell tale sign here that not only are you in the military but that you are almost finished with flight school. When we moved here last fall, we would see guys walking around with mustaches and, even though we knew it would eventually, it felt like Rob would never be at that stage! The mustache was like a status symbol and we thought those guys were so cool. It's been crazy for the last month to see Rob as the one walking around with the mustache! A daily reminder that even though it still feels like we just got here, our time in Meridian is coming to a close.