Rebekah Sanderlin Profile Banner
Rebekah Sanderlin Profile
Rebekah Sanderlin

@rsanderlin

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Writer, marketer, milspouse, mom. Bylines NYT, Atlantic, WaPo, CNN, NPR, / Nashville native adrift in Virginia

Virginia Beach, VA
Joined October 2008
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
Can I tell you what a military reunion is really like? I’ve been through a bunch. I’m the SME. You wait. You worry. You haven’t seen this person in months. Maybe even a year. So much has happened in that year. You want - desperately- with every cell in your body, for it to be a
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
You need granny panties, a glass of wine, a good laugh and some long conversation with him. You need to be you again. Us again. Together again. You need no one watching. /end
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
@cbfplr Ben’s wife will be so happy to see actual wood.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
6 years
@MaroonDawg_ @davidhogg111 You don’t see a difference between trained, armed soldiers at war and children in classrooms?
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
@USArmy My husband’s service meant I had to give up my career, live far from family & friends, gave birth alone, almost got divorced & have raised 3 kids mostly on my own - but, hey, I get to shop at the PX.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
6 years
I used to write a conservative column for the daily newspaper in a military town. I voted early this year and voted Democrat all the way down the ticket. I can’t stand what the Republican Party has become. #GOPVotingBlue
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
11 months
My husband, who deployed 27 times in 26 years of service, during a torrential downpour, not wanting to park in the “veteran” parking at the grocery store because there might be someone more deserving…🙄😆
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
1 year
Has anyone already finished Prince Harry’s book? I’m in the Afghanistan part and completely shook by the potential positive impact his book could have on public understanding of the veteran experience.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
2 years
I’m getting DMs from moderate & right leaning suburban soccer mom friends asking what they can do re Roe. They’re enraged. I wish they’d been enraged a whole lot sooner but y’all we gotta welcome them to the fold & put them to work. It’s gonna take all of us.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
@thehill So we can sue men for irresponsibly getting us pregnant, right?
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
@thehill Or... if the man knows sex could end in the woman’s death, then the man can be charged with, what? Involuntary homicide? Reckless endangerment? Accessory to murder?
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
8 months
Military members & air traffic controllers will work without pay because of: Matt Gaetz-FL Tim Burchett-TN Anna Paulina Luna-FL Eli Crane-AZ Andy Ogles-TN Matt Rosendale-MT Andy Biggs-AZ Dan Bishop-NC Wesley Hunt-TX Cory Mills-FL If you voted for them, the shutdown is your fault
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
Afghanistan has dictated every major, & most minor, decisions of my past 18 years. I do not know how many friends I’ve lost there. 30? Maybe more? I stopped counting & don’t dare try now. Afghanistan is why I had to give up my career. Afghanistan is why I gave birth alone.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
climb him. They want to absorb him. And you’re grateful for this because it lets you off the hook. You need to process that it’s really over. He really did make it home. You never let yourself dare to believe that would happen. You need a minute. You need a day.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
11 months
@clhubes When I was a teen we called my mom crazy because on Christmas Eve she called us all ungrateful, got in her car & drive 200 miles away to go see a movie. Now that I have teens I’m like
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
but you aren’t sure. Because it’s awkward. Because this is, effectively, a stranger. You haven’t seen him in so long, and so much has happened, to both of you, since he left. You know what happened to him because you went to the memorials for the guys who aren’t coming home.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
sweeping moment. You want to rush into each other’s arms. You want everything to be like your wedding day. You want your kids to recognize him - desperately - but you’re terrified that they won’t. Especially since he’ll be in uniform & they arent used to that, & there are so
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
11 months
I don’t recall anyone ever drinking from any kind of water bottle until the late 1980s. Were we all just dehydrated for decades?
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
You went to the hospital to see the guys who lost their legs. You KNOW. But you don’t know. You don’t want to know. And he doesn’t know how you’ve changed, because you didn’t tell him. You COULDN’T tell him what was happening at home because he needed his head in the game.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
many other uniforms. So you show them photos for days in advance, like flash cards, to get them used to his face. And then you wait. In the new outfit you bought. With your legs chafing, freshly shaved for the first time in months. In sexy lingerie that you hope will he seen
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
Your daughter runs and grabs the wrong daddy’s leg, and it’s awkward and sad and kind of pathetic for everyone. He feels bad. She is embarrassed. You only shrug. And then you see him. It takes a moment before you’re sure it’s him. And then it’s like running into an old friend
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
somewhere. You doubt your eyes at first. But then he walks closer. And you exchange a stiff, awkward kiss. Because that’s what you’re supposed to do. And you hug. And you say loudly, emphatically, “look! Kids! It’s Daddy!” And then they come to life! They SEE him! They try to
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
So he come home. And then you wait. Your thong is riding up because you’re used to granny panties now and you can’t adjust it because you’re in a room full of people. The kids are fussy and bored, cranky and tired. The soldiers start appearing. Families start finding each other.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
2 years
For those who think you can leave the military and be a normal person again, my husband just sent me a text that started with “FYSA”.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
1 year
Indulge me in this rant. Or don’t. I don’t care. We’re sacrificing good Americans by the thousands each year, many of them children, because a few people insist that someday they might need to overthrow the government. I call bullshit.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
@LethalityJane @TuckerCarlson @FoxNews Anyone who is openly hostile to approx 20% of the military does not, in fact, “support the troops”.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
2 years
@JessicaValenti Love that he’s just admitting that men in his world have been relying on women to do everything important.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
I won’t share details, but the family I’ve been helping every day since August got out of Afghanistan!!!!!
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
@LizDueweke Milky Ways taste like someone ate a real candy bar, regurgitated it, then formed the vomit into the shape of a candy bar.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
A close friend just boarded a tiny cruise ship in a foreign country & saw her nemesis at the lifeboat drill. Like NEMESIS. The last time they saw each other was when they SUED each other! They are assigned to the SAME LIFEBOAT! I am riveted.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
11 months
What if my religion says I can’t serve Christians?
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
Adding Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park, Montana to my bucket list. 😍
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
11 months
I’m at the beach & a guy in the group behind us just told his wife to stay out of the water because “dolphins can smell you if you’re lactating and they’ll attack you.”
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
@jkass99 Pretty sure if you were having a stroke you’d be too preoccupied with having a stroke to consider your companion’s credentials.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
I can’t tell each of you thank you individually— but THANK YOU! And I hope all the service members & military & veteran family members reading this realize that all the wonderful comments here are for you, too! ❤️
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
6 years
@MtnCOLady @SenBobCorker Hard to corroborate when they won’t investigate or subpoena the only witness.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
@ColinMorris99 @MeridithG1015 @NBCNews My husband is there. I’m literally nauseous.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
7 years
@horowitz39 @TeresaLinberg Even if he didn’t do anything illegal with the other girls... a 30-something DA dating teenagers is predatory & gross.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
PSA: Taking a soldier home is how you get unplanned pregnancies.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
@NeedBirds @justinbaragona “If more Asians had dads who ran for President, we’d hire them.”
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
@Gr8SageEqlofHvn @shannonrwatts AND got hired to be a prison guard!
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
So you’re stuck at home, trying to simultaneously manage your career & bored kids, while also trying to tune out existential anxiety & the feeling that everyone you love might die? Welcome to life as a military spouse. I’m available for coaching.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
@KaitMarieox Funny how people who freak out about government getting all up in their gun case are rolling out the red carpet for government to be in their body.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
I’m married to an enlisted soldier. There have been many times the money ran out before the month did. I know well the thrill of triple coupon days. I can fix anything in our house (seriously) because he was always gone and we couldn’t afford to hire someone. And I have a Rolex.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
@awgaffney I have carefully cultivated that flavor sheen over 20 years of cleaning it with only water and kosher salt. Put mine in the dishwasher & I will deep fry your testicles.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
@PaulSzoldra How is this guy supposed to lead & potentially command Jewish soldiers? Why should any parents, spouses & children entrust him, with poor judgment like this, with the lives of their soldiers?
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Rebekah Sanderlin
2 years
Just want to go on record and say that my husband was right & I was wrong when he insisted that we buy a house when we could get 2.25% on a 30 year fixed.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
11 months
@SketchesbyBoze My step grandfather’s biggest issue in his last year of life was losing his pants. He was one of the only men in his assisted living facility and he kept forgetting where he left them. C’est la vie.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
1 year
21 years ago today a hot guy in UDT shorts swam up to me at a Ft Lauderdale pool & then showed up at my room, drunk, later that night with girls names & numbers written in Sharpie on his thighs… & 3 kids & 20 years of marriage later, here we are.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
1 year
The story I’ll tell my grandkids to describe GWOT is my husband deployed to Afg hearing over the radio that his best friend was killed in Iraq &calling me in the middle of the night to ask me to go to his house at first light so his widow wouldn’t be alone when she got the news.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
@TheBloggess My dad added 3 monkeys to every Bible story he read to us — Moses & the 3 monkeys; Jonah in the whale w/3 monkeys; Jesus healing w/help from 3 monkeys, etc. I got in trouble when they sent me to Christian school b/c I corrected my teacher when she didnt mention the monkeys.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
@FiFiRobTO @Robinwi41491053 @MarioNe82487668 @DineshDSouza As an Aspy mom, I agree. Their minds are beautiful & fascinating. They don’t always say what others want to hear, but they always speak their truth.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
6 years
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
@justinamash This would be a great letter if we wanted him to buy a hurricane damaged Honda Civic.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
1 year
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
Welcome to America. ❤️
@therecount
The Recount
3 years
A family evacuated from Afghanistan arrives at Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia. (AP/Jose Luis Magana)
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Rebekah Sanderlin
1 year
@DacePotas You mentioned their backgrounds BECAUSE you know they’re exceptional. Literally the *exceptions* to the rule.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
2 years
In 1999 PFC Barry Winchell was murdered by other soldiers for dating a drag performer. Last weekend a former soldier took down a civilian who was murdering people at a drag show. That’s how far the Army has come & how far the civilian community has fallen. 🧵
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Rebekah Sanderlin
1 year
Your George Santos background is the last non-American restaurant you ate in + the occupation of the protagonist in the last movie you saw. I’m Japanese rock star.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
@SRuhle @realDonaldTrump They sent smock signals.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
A guy in a polo shirt doesn’t get to criticize a woman in yoga pants who isn’t doing yoga.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
@MikeDNolin When I had my first baby, my husband was deployed & I was sad & lonely. My dad hopped on a flight the day after I called him just so he could drive 13 hours back home with me, my newborn & my rambunctious puppy. Dads are the best.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
My husband came home, alive & unharmed, from the last deployment of his military career.
@apbenven
Alexis Benveniste
4 years
Tell me about the best thing that happened to you in 2019
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Rebekah Sanderlin
1 year
@JessupShannon Boys & girls weren’t allowed to swim together (or wear shorts) at my Christian summer camp. But the only lifeguard was a man. He had to sit outside the high privacy fence while the age 7-12 girls swam. We had to keep our coverups nearby in case he had to save someone.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
@mike_pence I attended a Christian school. I was punished for praying in 1st grade bc boys were present & I wasn’t being submissive - to 6 y/os. In 3rd grade my teacher said I was going to Hell bc my parents got divorced. Many Christian schools turn ppl away from Christ w/their intolerance.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
2 years
We tried *good guy with a gun*. It didn’t work. Why? Because the “good guys” aren’t where we need them to be. Because when they are there, they don’t act. Because they leave their guns unlocked at home & their hurting, lonely teenagers gets their hands on them. 🧵
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Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
I got to expand my Twitter thread in this piece for The Atlantic. Thank you all for reading and taking the time to consider the military family experience. What It’s Like When Your Husband Returns From War - The Atlantic
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
1 year
When I was in 3rd grade at a Christian school in Nashville, my teacher said, “it’s a shame you’re going to Hell because your parents are divorced because I think you’re a sweet girl.” A few years later that teacher got caught sexually assaulting her adopted teenaged son.
@terrancesavery
Terrance Avery
1 year
A thing that folks who didn’t grow up around christian nationalism don’t understand is that laws, norms, and decency don’t really matter. Appealing to those things is useless. The only thing is absolute defeat and embarrassment.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
@NataliaAntonova Once, while my husband was deployed, someone he knew saw me “on a date” with another man & emailed my husband to tattle. The “other man” was my father. Who was 30 years older than me & I very much resembled.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
Afghanistan is like a member of my family. My house is filled with rugs. Maps of the Helmand hang on my walls. My children have outfits made for them by Afghan women. I have jewelry, purses & outfits of my own- gifts from women who wanted to thank us for my husband’s help.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
1 year
Serious question: what happens when a kid like my shy teen daughter, who doesn’t wear make-up, dresses androgynously, & is often mistaken for boy gets harassed in a bathroom and ordered to prove that she’s a girl?
@AnnevanLeur
Annie van Leur
1 year
Florida is set to arrest people in restrooms regardless of legal gender status in a sweeping bill
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Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
It’s why I buried my father alone. It’s why my husband is in only one of the family portraits we have. It’s why my husband’s body is aged before his years, & we’re grateful for that. Because he’s breathing. Because his body is whole. Because he doesn’t have cancer.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
My husband and I have been married 16 years today and it still feels like we’re newlyweds ... probably because if you add up all the months he hasn’t been deployed, we’ve only been married about 5 years.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
@realDonaldTrump You did this. You own this. These are YOUR followers. You told them to go to the capitol, and they did. Everything they do there is on you. This is your legacy. This is what you will be remembered for.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
But the news that troops are leaving Afghanistan? That doesn’t make me sad, or happy. I guess I’m numb to it. Honestly, we’ve heard this before. And it’s hard to be happy wondering what it will mean for Fatima, if she’s even still alive. Or for all the Fatimas.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
I don’t know what teenager needs to see this, but I made fun of D&D kids in high school & now I have a teenager who talks to me for hours, in great detail, about his strategy for upping his game as a dungeon master, whatever the fuck that is.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
1 year
@VoteGloriaJ I wish I was surprised but they’ve been telling us our whole lives, a thousand different ways, that we don’t matter as much as men.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
So many mixed thoughts and emotions. But overall? I guess I’m just numb.
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@rsanderlin
Rebekah Sanderlin
1 year
Tell me you’ve never served without telling me you’ve never served. Hard no. And not just a “no.” A “no,” followed by a “fuck you.”
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Rebekah Sanderlin
11 months
“I was just wondering how deep the water is and if anyone has ever jumped in,” he grinned. And for the millionth time I remembered that men live in an entirely different world than women.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
@WalshFreedom So just a really good day for the vast majority of us, huh?
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Rebekah Sanderlin
2 years
I see that Guy Who Sat Out the Entire Longest War in US History is still trying to make everything about him.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
1 year
“Just throw up a pic from any military base. No one will know the difference.”
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Rebekah Sanderlin
2 years
Y’all. My life is so good. It’s like really, really good to be me. When I say that everything improved 100-fold for both of us when my husband retired from the Army, I really mean it. A lot of good came from the Army years, but I wouldn’t go back for anything.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
4 years
@itsalwayswednes Good for you. He’s getting a good reminder that actions have consequences. For any saying you overreacted, if you both lived in a small town & he said it to you in person, you would have let others know. This is no different.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
6 years
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Rebekah Sanderlin
6 years
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Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
It’s easy to be happy that this will mean someone gets to keep his legs. Someone gets to coach soccer and be present for graduation. Not get exposed to concussive blasts that would have meant a lifetime of frustration and lost house keys. It means some family won’t go to Dover.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
@friendofdaisy @bessbell Ugh. When I was a senior in high school Newt Gingrich hit on me.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
I hope to meet her someday, and to see those beautiful mountains for myself. Someday. In some ways I feel like I already have. Afghanistan has had a seat at my table for all of my married life, most of my adult life, all of my childrens’ lives.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
2 years
My teen son has struggled with school since the 3rd grade. He has all As & 2 Bs right now and is the happiest I’ve ever seen him…in case anyone wants to know how my husband getting out of the Army & us settling into a forever home has impacted our family.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
2 years
@seraphrdm Biggest frustration w/ trying to help my child is that every specialist is like, “you just need to…(rattles off a long list of hyper-organized stuff no ND person can do) and I’m like, “you do get that this shit is genetic, right? I can’t do that either.”
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Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
I am actively refusing to think about how every major decision of my adult life (when to get married, where to live, what job I can work, when to have babies, how to raise them) has been made around deployments to Afghanistan.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
2 years
@16thSMA SMA, when America’s daughters, entrusted to your care & stewardship, are being publicly eviscerated for the “crime” of volunteering to serve our country, the offense lies with all the leaders who FAILED to speak up for them — not with the one who showed actual leadership.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
1 year
@Timodc I’m 46. I flunked out of law school, & I’m married to a Green Beret. But the hate part checks out.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
3 years
Y’all.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
6 years
@RealSheriffJoe Joe, there’s this guy named Roy I think you should meet. He lives in Alabama.
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Rebekah Sanderlin
5 years
@DanCrenshawTX She’s criticizing Fox, not the people who watch Fox. And she’s right. Why should those of us who are disgusted by the divisiveness & distortions of truth on Fox be made to add to that company’s profitability?
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