Chenoa Bostick’s@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Chenoa+Bostick@@ ruby-red hair bounces as she shakes her head and laughs at the neighbor’s son. The boy, speaking excitedly about his boomerang, asks whether Bostick’s nine-year-old son, Kai, can play.  With a smile, Bostick informs him that Kai is at his grandma’s house.
As the boy runs off, she turns back and walks into her little apartment that is covered in Harry Potter decorations, Japanese art and the occasional stuffed animal shoved behind the couch cushions. Amid it all are also various memorabilia from her ten years in the Navy.
Bostick, a University senior, is a full-time, non-traditional student, a former Navy corpsman, a counselor and a single parent. Transferring here last year, she arrived with the goal of one day returning to the Navy as an officer and in a position where she can make a bigger difference. But within months in her first term, she began to question that goal and played with the idea of leaving her military past behind altogether.
“I dyed my hair two different colors, ordered pizza every night, laid on the couch and watched TV,” she said. “I just did everything that was the opposite of what I had been doing. It was a little mini-rebellion.”
During those months, she said she was particularly shaken by her first Veterans Day experience. Not a typical vet by her own words, she didn’t quite know what to expect. Even so, she was offended when her professor wouldn’t excuse her for the special day and was troubled by the low level of recognition it received.
“A student asked me what Veterans Day was, and I guess I was surprised that people normally think of it as little old men marching down the street,” she said. “And then I happened upon the reading of the names. That was depressing.”
One advantage Bostick saw is that she can now spend more time with her son. Even though he lived on base with her during her time in the Navy, they were unable to spend much time together.
“I asked him the other day if he wished I was still in the military, being as we don’t have as much money now. He said, ‘No, I’m happy that we get to spend more time together now,’” she said.
Another issue was simply that she didn’t want to be overly associated with the military — she wanted to be a civilian for once. Bostick’s mother, Lorraine, is excited her daughter and grandson are no longer 5,000 miles away, even though she could see her daughter’s struggle.
“I think it was a real challenge for her in a few ways,” she said. “The military always provided so much guidance and support, and she wasn’t getting that kind of direction at the University.”
It ended up taking Bostick over a full year to adjust to being out of the military.
“After a year and a half, I’m finally just relaxing,” she said. “It was weird for the first year during that transition period. I really didn’t want to be involved with military. It was this Catch-22, because it was what I was familiar with, but at the same time, I didn’t want to be identified as that anymore.”
Even so, she feels she has come to accept her role as a veteran and is revisiting her original goal of becoming a Navy officer. Her mom sees the importance of her finding the right groups to talk with.
“I think it would be excellent if she felt comfortable in a military group,” she said. “It would be such a great support system.”
This year, Bostick found some of that through the events organized for the University’s Veteran Awareness Week. She considered it big improvement from last year.
“I was impressed to see that there was a pizza night, and they had a run, and I thought that was so much cooler,” she said. “There was a lot more going on.”
She said she will continue to earn her degree and then decide if she wants to return to the Navy.
“My body doesn’t want to return to the Navy lifestyle,” she said with a laugh. It would also most likely put a major strain on her family, due to the high probability of deployment. “I really think that’s the key factor. I want to be there for my son during high school and take pictures on prom night and not be overseas.”