What is it about Legacy Magazine?

“May we cultivate curiousity while choosing clarity over chaos:
celebrate creativity while choosing connectedness over comparison,
and curate confidence while choosing courage over comfort”
-Legacy Magazine

What was it about Legacy that initially caught my attention?

Their commitment to supporting and celebrating a community.

When I say community, I mean to reference the community of service member families, couples and their spouses. I use the term “Milso” heavily throughout my social media tags. “Milso” is short for “Military Significant Other” and that’s part of my identity. Some days are bad, some days are worse, some days are great and some are even better. For those of us needing to always be ready to change plans without a moments notice, it can be hard to feel rooted or belong to a community.

For background: As milso, our lives are planned out for the next few months and in most cases, once those few months have passed, news may come that take us another couple hundred miles away or even a hemisphere away. Thankfully for us, Chi has always been stationed here in Beaufort and we have not yet needed to uproot and move our lives across the country for the Marine Corps. Being the significant other of an active duty military member can be one of the most difficult and taxing roles an individual could ever take on in their lifetime. Being deeply committed to someone who isn’t there half the time teaches you to learn how to trust, how to practice patience, how to become self-sufficient and independent, all too soon. Being Chi’s other half has been the most rewarding journey for me. I have learned so much during his chapter in the Marine Corps and I’ve met so many wonderful people who have shown me how I can be more supportive, understanding and loving. The growth I’ve seen in myself would not have been without Chi and his unending patience as well as the strong leadership examples I’ve been taught from other military significant other’s.

As humans, we are meant to BELONG to a community, to interact with other people, to love them, to support them, to confide in them, to learn with them and simply grow with them. Legacy Magazine’s second Volume has completely blown me away with how much community support is showcased all throughout the content. I love how much it inspires me to connect with others to find ways to give back to the community and create environments for individuals needing a nudge towards following their passions. We are all created as individuals: all individually beautiful, unique, strong, compassionate, bright, and so on. I firmly believe that as humans, we must find a community to belong to and find ways to use our talents and passions for the good of others.

Each page is filled with stories highlighting veterans, active service members, spouses or their families enabling themselves to pursue their dreams.

One of my favorite articles from this volume: growing your dream NOW. The article goes on to ask why so many of us choose to put our dreams aside. Is it fear? Are you waiting for the permission of someone or something else? Do you simply just not have a dream?

All these questions are ones we must ask ourselves at some point preferably sooner than later. Without a dream, what good is our individuality? From personal experience, I didn’t have a good reason for why I waited so long to really go forward with my creative outlet. Excuse after excuse, I continually told myself I just needed to get my ideas together first or I just didn’t have the time. I was wrong. The support and immense amount of encouragement I’ve received from so many of you is proof enough to me that as long as I am willing to share, someone will always be there to listen. Find your dream, find your passion; Invest in yourself and let your work be an inspiration to others.

Legacy Magazine embodies so much of what I believe in and does for me what I strive to do for others: inspire. To inspire and be inspired is such a powerful cycle. I was inspired by other incredible, fearless milso individuals to be an inspiration to others. I’m hoping that by sharing my passions, what inspired me, my dreams and goals, I can inspire one of you to truly pursue your own dream(s), whatever they may be. Legacy Magazine has shown me that there is a massive network of others so similar to me: all along the military family journey and while it may be a difficult journey, it is still possible to be an encouragement to the community around you and to individuals you come into contact with on an everyday basis. Volume II is full of stories about how it IS possible to follow your dreams and that journey is easier when you’re a part of a bigger picture.

There is so much more I want to say about Legacy Magazine and how much I love their mission but for now, I’ll leave it here and end with this quote from p. 55 which I hope you believe of yourself and remind yourself of:

“I was uniquely made to create beautiful things”

You can find Legacy Magazine on Facebook by clicking here

or going directly to their website by clicking here or on the menu above

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Currently listening: Eight Days a Week by The Beatles

Love always,

Hannah