Letters for an Intern

Allow me to introduce myself, I am Maral Binnebose, a masters of social work intern that started working at Kids Rank in August of 2020 during the CoVid-19 global pandemic. Everyone's daily life, routine and ‘normalcy’ had been turned upside down in a few quick months. Fast forward to the start of February 2021 and not too much has changed but we all resolve that it will get better and will be better for future generations to come now that we have endured all that this pandemic has brought our way.

Why start an initial blog talking about what we all already know, because what we know if relative to us, it is personal and there are so many more layers to what really has been the impact of the pandemic. The isolation, the depression, the overall mental health and well being of each and every one of us has been compromised to various levels throughout this past year. The more marginalized the group was at the onset of the pandemic, the higher the risks of not only contracting the virus but also the increased potential for decreased mental health and well-being.

Let’s examine this a little further with a population of our society that does not always get acknowledged and is very rarely at the forefront of thought, our military connected youth.

You may say what military connected youth? Military connected youth are found in all zip codes across this great nation. Yes, you read that right, all zip codes. Whether it be a veteran, active duty, reserve or national guard service member, our communities have military connected youth in them. Think for a moment how you may be connected to the military. If you think you are not, you would be surprised, I would venture to guess that somehow we each have had consistent interaction with an active or veteran service member family. Personally, I am a daughter of an Air Force Veteran and a granddaughter of a Navy Veteran. I have a considerable amount of extended family that serve(d) in various branches of our military.

You may be thinking why does this matter, but with all sincerity I can say it is extremely important that we work to acknowledge and support our military connected youth. Why because even before the global pandemic many of our military youth have found themselves in situations that have caused similar feelings of isolation, anxiety, and many other factors that have created added stress to their mental health and well-being that we have all been experiencing throughout the past year.

Our military youth did not choose this path or way of life; they were born into it and they serve too, with grace, dignity and a sense of resilience that we all can only hope to achieve over our lifetime.

I encourage you to follow along through my journey as I have the extreme pleasure of working alongside the most incredible people here at KidsRank and will work to provide insight of how these amazing kids balance military life and the civilian world, all too often they straddle the line walking simultaneously in both worlds.

Until next time!

With love and gratitude,

Maral