{"id":1283,"date":"2023-04-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=1283"},"modified":"2023-04-04T06:48:35","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T06:48:35","slug":"lifelong-military-child-reflects-on-month-of-the-military-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=1283","title":{"rendered":"Lifelong military child reflects on Month of the Military Child"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Harmony Jones, right, a lifelong military child and member of the Monterey military community, poses with her father, Marine Corps Capt. James Jones; her mother, Brandi Jones; and her brother, Jett Jones, at a Fourth of July celebration at the White House, Washington, D.C., 2022.
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\n The Pacific Coast Athletic League named Harmony Jones, a lifelong military child and senior at the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, Calif., Defensive Player of the Year in March.
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\n Harmony Jones, a military child and senior at the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, Calif., poses for a photo wearing her Miss Monterey Teen USA sash.
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\n Harmony Jones, a military child and senior at the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, Calif., poses for a photo at school March 8.
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PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. (April 3, 2023) \u2013 Harmony Jones, a senior in high school and member of the Monterey military community, has been a military child since she was born.<\/p>\n

In her 17 years, Jones has lived in six places\u2014spanning from Virginia on the East Coast to California on the West Coast. While the moves have presented challenges, they have ultimately contributed to her success. Her achievements include stellar grades, athletic success in field hockey, leadership roles at school and the title of Miss Monterey County USA 2022. April is the Month of the Military Child, and Jones shared how focusing on the positive has helped her thrive as a military child.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust stick with it. Every turn is going to be a new adventure and it\u2019s going to be difficult,\u201d Jones said, \u201cbut as long as you just keep some core values with you and learn from everywhere you are and not see it as an unfortunate circumstance [you\u2019re going to be successful].\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones is one of 1.6 million U.S. military children, and each year the military community celebrates the Month of the Military Child in April to thank and support them for the unique and invaluable role they play. Jones said she is thankful for the recognition because the military lifestyle can be tough, and it is important to recognize the fact that it impacts children and spouses as well as service members.<\/p>\n

\u201cMilitary kids go through a lot as well and they deserve a little extra support and extra appreciation for what they do for their country,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019 family includes her father, Marine Corps Capt. James Jones, an aviation supply officer stationed at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.; her mother, Brandi, organizing director for the Secure Families Initiative, a nonprofit organization that represents military spouses, family members and veterans; and 15-year-old brother Jett. A senior at the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, Jones plans to attend the University of Southern California next year and major in human biology with an emphasis in pre-med. Her goal is to become a surgeon.<\/p>\n

On average, military children move every two to three years, and this causes unique challenges due to changes in schools and support networks, according to the Department of Defense.<\/p>\n

As someone who has experienced several military moves, Jones said she urges military children to focus on the positive. Doing so builds resiliency, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI developed a lot of resilience from constantly having to rebuild myself everywhere I have gone and make sure that I can still hold some core values,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThat\u2019s helped me get to where I am now.\u201d<\/p>\n

A core value that has helped her throughout her life is having respect for everyone, Jones said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a huge one, regardless of what they\u2019ve done or where they\u2019ve come from,\u201d Jones said. \u201cJust appreciating everyone for who they are and kind of that they\u2019ve made it this far and then having compassion for everyone. I would just say being a kind person in as many ways as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones is also thankful for the support and guidance her family has provided her throughout the years.<\/p>\n

Brandi Jones said she is proud of her daughter\u2019s achievements and believes the Month of the Military Child is important.<\/p>\n

In fact, Brandi Jones, a military child herself, said she thought it was so important when the family lived in Seal Beach, California, she became involved in her children\u2019s parent and teacher organization helped organize Month of the Military Child events at her children\u2019s school, where about a quarter of the student population was military connected.<\/p>\n

That was in 2013, and the school has continued the recognition events since then, Brandi Jones said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s impacted thousands of military children over the years who have been stationed there and it gives me so much peace knowing that they\u2019ll never have to be not recognized or not included the way the first year was for our family,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

As she looks to the future, Harmony Jones said she is thankful for her military upbringing. Although she is still young, living in different places has allowed her understand people have different perceptions of the world, and she has been able to take aspects of those places and implement them in her own life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI continue to remember everywhere that I\u2019ve come from and how those places have impacted my life,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the Month of the Military Child, visit https:\/\/www.militaryonesource.mil\/leaders-service-providers\/children-youth-and-teens\/month-of-the-military-child-toolkit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 \/ 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 Harmony Jones, right, a lifelong military child and member of the Monterey military community, poses with her father, Marine Corps Capt. James Jones; her mother, Brandi Jones; and her brother, Jett Jones, at a Fourth of July celebration at the White House, Washington, D.C., 2022. (Photo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1285,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1283"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1290,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions\/1290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}