Diary of a Navy Brat:
Adultery, Poverty & No Apology

Moving house is never easy, especially when you are just a kid trying to make sense of everything around you. I have moved quite a few times because of my dad’s job in the military. But this time, the move was different. It wasn’t about a new posting or a new base. It was because my mum found out about my dad’s affair . This change shook our family in ways I didn’t fully understand back then, but it left a mark on me that I still remember clearly. The Confusing Conversation I

The first clear memory I have of adultery within my family dates back to the early 1990s. It was during a rare visit to my nan’s house on my father’s side—a side of the family we seldom saw because they didn’t seem to enjoy spending time with us. That night changed everything I thought I knew about my family and left a mark on my childhood that I still carry today. A Rare Visit and Childhood Distractions Visits to my father’s family were few and far between. Their coldness to

For as long as I can remember, there was a quiet friction between who I was and the world I was expected to inhabit. By the age of seven, the feeling had settled in: I was different. While society had one blueprint for me, my heart had another. I found comfort in the company of girls; I found joy in their toys, seeing in them a colour and a playfulness that the "boy" side of the toy aisle lacked. I remember a specific afternoon at my aunt’s house. While the adults were in the