Why I stayed in SF? Chicago Chapter.

Every Navy wife knows the dreaded day when the orders arrive. In military life, it usually means one thing: you are moving once again, your routine is shifting, and your family has to adjust all over again.

By the summer of 2015, my husband and I already knew he would be relocated from San Francisco to Chicago in January 2016. With that news came another layer of reality: we would have to move out of our apartment, which meant I would no longer have an office space.

Then, something unexpected happened in my favor. My client Josh, a personal trainer, left 24 Hour Fitness and opened his own personal training gym. That opportunity gave me my very first office space upstairs above his gym. At a time when everything in my personal life felt uncertain, that little space gave me stability.

The original plan was simple. My husband would move to Chicago, settle in, and I would follow shortly after. But what happened next changed everything. In the three months I stayed in San Francisco, I opened my practice with just 10 clients, and within that same three-month window, my clientele tripled. Who would want to leave during that kind of momentum? Who would not want to stay and see where that growth could lead?

That same year, my husband was preparing for his promotion to E7. We both realized that this was the moment for each of us to focus on our careers. I also had another thought in the back of my mind: my husband was getting closer to retirement. I assumed that maybe after Chicago he would retire, so I wanted to build something for myself that would provide stability for our family when he eventually got out of the military. If I could establish a strong practice now, I would not be starting from scratch later.

So we decided on a plan that supported both our goals. I would split my time between both cities. Half of the month I worked in San Mateo, and the other half I spent in Chicago as a housewife, supporting my husband

My clients made this possible. They were loyal, flexible, and incredibly supportive. They kept their standing appointments, they knew when to expect me each month, and many of them told me that as long as I did not move to Chicago permanently, they would continue to see me. That consistency allowed my practice to grow even with the back-and-forth travel. Before I knew it, three years passed, and my business had solidified in those first three years of balancing two cities and two different roles.

Life in the military often means adapting, sacrificing, and rebuilding. The hardest job in the military is being a military wife, because there is always a sacrifice somewhere sometimes you give up your time to be with your spouse during deployments, sometimes you put your career on hold to support the family, and sometimes you balance both while figuring out a path that works for you.

For me, staying in San Francisco was a choice to honor both my career and my family. It was not easy, but it allowed me to build something meaningful, create stability, and embrace growth in the midst of change. Choosing that path taught me that even in a life defined by sacrifice, you can still find a way to nurture your own dreams.

As a military wife, finding yourself in the shadow of your husband can come with its own set of challenges. And for a massage therapist wanting to leave the spa or franchise model to build something of your own, there are challenges there too. Growth often hurts, and it can feel uncomfortable, but sometimes that discomfort is exactly where transformation happens. At the end of the day, building your own path whether in life or in your practice is absolutely worth it.