Going back: moving forward 4: Life ‘controlled chaos’ for military student

Editor’s note: The Aztec Press presents its award-winning series from Fall 2009. This series, “Going back: moving forward,” tells the stories of nontraditional students who have returned to school—some after a few years, others after many. “Going back: moving forward” won first place for Feature Writing in the Society of Professional Journalists regional 2-year/community college category. It reached the top three nationally, to become a nationalist finalist.

Story by Liza Porter
Photo courtesy of Amirault family

Claire Amirault is about as busy as one woman can be. She is in the Air Force, stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. She is married with two children and is going back to college. Her sense of humor helps keep her sane during the pressures of her life.

“My husband, he describes me as controlled chaos,” Amirault says, laughing. She usually doesn’t show a lot of emotion. But when it hits, “it’s just whew, he knows my head, it’s completely chaotic, but it’s controlled chaos.”

Amirault is 28 years old and has long blonde hair. She exudes a certain self-acceptance. She has traveled the world. She and her husband were both stationed in Japan when they met. They got married there and had their children there.

“I lived in northern Japan,” Amirault says, “so it wasn’t like Tokyo, where everybody is rude.”

She lived in a farming area and Japanese people would approach them because they wanted to learn English. “It was really nice.”

Amirault took her first Pima class this past summer—an online writing class. It had been 10 years since she had taken anything except military courses.

She’s used to working hard, but at first was unsure about the class. As she watched her progress in the points column of the Web site, she thought: “Maybe I’m not doing as bad as I think I am.”

To earn her associate degree, Amirault plans to take all of her classes online. “It’s because I have a crazy work schedule. It’s easier to do it online.” She had to switch from days to nights recently, and her position doesn’t allow her to take time off to go to classes.

At Davis-Monthan, Amirault works in a command post. This translates in civilian terms to a 9-11 operation. Her 12-hour shifts are stressful and she does not see her children as often as she likes.

Amirault’s husband deployed to Afghanistan in August, and will be there at least six months. “It’s good money when one of us goes but it’s better if he goes, because I don’t want to leave my kids,” she said. Her father-in-law has moved in to help take care of the children while her husband is gone.

She defines herself as mother and wife. “Being a mother is the first thing in my life that felt like it fit. That I was good at.”

Amirault has thought about leaving the Air Force to be with her children, but will probably stay in for nine more years to reach retirement. Getting a degree will help her have something lined up so she can leave the military if she wants to.

She tried going to community college when she was 18. “I just wasn’t responsible enough to go to the classes,” she says, laughing. Like many young people, she joined the military “to grow up.”

Amirault and her husband would like to eventually move to Maine. They want to buy five acres and build their dream house. “There’s also talk about owning a restaurant/bar,” she says, “but the goal is to get ourselves to Maine and build a house.”

About school, she says “I don’t know what I want to do. This year, I want to be a social worker, but who knows? Last year I wanted to be a lawyer.” She laughs.

The difference between going to college when she was 18 and now is that she’s willing to do the work. “I understand that it only benefits me,” she says. “I didn’t understand that before.”

She’s more willing to learn, Amirault says, because “when I was 18, I knew everything, and now I know that I don’t.” She laughs one more time.

Originally published October 29, 2009

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2: Work at Orphanage Provides Inspiration
3: Self Taught ‘techie’ re-engineers himself
5: Retiree takes classes just for pleasure
6: Renaissance woman enjoys life-long learning
7: Journalist switching careers to teaching