A local college student and military brat’s desire to help other children of active-duty military personnel cope with constant change associated with military life inspired him to write a book.
Valrico resident Shanon Hyde, a junior at Penn State University majoring in aerospace engineering, drew from his own experiences to write Dear Military Teen: Moving, Deployments, and Winning the Game of High School, published on July 28.
“This book is dedicated to other military teens and brats like myself and helps provide advice and solutions for problems unique to us,” said Hyde, whose father retired from the Marine Corps two years ago.
One topic he writes about is how to approach the challenges of moving to different cities every few years. During his childhood, he lived in California, Virginia, North Carolina, back to the same base in Virginia, Japan and back to North Carolina. The family moved to Valrico after his father retired.
When his family moved to Virginia the summer before he started seventh grade, he thought the transition would be easy because he had already met friends there the first time his family was stationed there.
“I incorrectly assumed that my old friends would want to be friends with me again, so that turned out to be my most difficult move,” he said.
Before writing the book, Hyde created a podcast titled The Shanon Show: The Best Military Kids Podcast, where he interviewed military kids and teens and noticed many overarching issues. The podcast inspired him to write the book, which took almost two years to complete.
“So many military kids limit themselves because they just want to fit in and survive, but that can limit their potential,” he said.
He encourages military kids to be outgoing after each move.
The book also offers tips for transferring credits from school to school. “Schools on military bases are more lenient when it comes to transferring credits than other schools,” he said.
For more information about Hyde, visit his Apple podcast, The Shanon Show: The Best Military Kids Podcast. To purchase his book, which costs $13.99, visit www.amazon.com.
