No Place Like Home

Me with my brothers and sisters in 2014.

     My name is Karen Benecewicz and I was born in August of 1973, in New London, Connecticut, while my father was enlisted in the Navy.  A week after my mother got her driver's license.  Running joke is they gave her the license because they saw how pregnant she was. I am the oldest of six, I have 2 brothers and 3 sisters.  There is an 18-year age difference between me and the youngest. 

    

      My favorite childhood memory is traveling to Brooklyn in the summer and visiting my grandparents and cousins. It was like a second home, a familiar place to go to, in between all our moves.  As a military brat, we moved around a lot. While in the Navy, my father was also stationed in Norfolk, Virginia.  In 1979-80 my father was commissioned as an officer in the Army.  His first duty assignment was Edgewood, Maryland - just up the road in Harford County.  From there he was stationed in Landstuhl, Germany.   My trip to Germany was a very unforgettable event. 

     My father left a few months before to report and find us a house.   So, in the winter of 1982, my mother, traveling alone with 4 children ranging in age from 9 years to 3 months arranged our flight to Germany.   We left on a cold snowy November morning, out of JFK and flew to Philadelphia.  A snow storm delayed our plane and we missed our connecting flight.  After a few phone calls, we were loaded on to a bus and went to McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey.   It felt as if we waited there a whole day. Actually it was late in the evening when we finally were told we had a flight. 

     

     We were loaded on to a C-141 cargo plane. It was dark, cold and barely any seats and NO windows.   My sisters and I found a spot along the wall in the drop down jump seats. We were buckled in, issued ear plugs and given a boxed dinner for the long plane ride.  Several hours past and when we landed. Do you know what I saw? (Remember there were no windows.)  Palm trees, sunshine and it was a balmy 70 something degrees.   At 9 years old, I knew this was NOT Germany!  Apparently we stopped in the Azores to refuel.  To say the least, after sitting on the jump seats and being up all night, I was NOT getting back on that plane.  I wanted to stay, it was paradise.  After some persuasion, I was finally coxed back on to the plane and apparently forced some high ranking official to give me his seat. Needless to say, we finally arrived in Germany where we were greeted by my father.  

     The flight to the United States three years later was more of what I had in mind.  Window seats, peanuts on the plane and a movie.   My experience in Europe as a young child inspired my passion for travel and history.  The year we returned was the summer of 1986, I had just finished 5th grade and we moved to San Antonio, Texas for 3 whole months.  In December of that year we moved to Indianapolis, Indiana.

     I considered Indiana my home for the longest time.  I was able to finish middle school and started high school.  It was in Indiana where I learned to drive and got my first job.  My first job was a record store, back when cds were a new thing. I was one of those cool kids with a great job.  I think it was during my time at the record store I acquired my taste for alternative music. I love concert, live bands and try to keep up with the new artist.   At the end of my junior year my father retired and was offered a job back at Edgewood, Maryland.   So, the summer of 1990 was a miserable one.  I left my best friend,  moved to a town where I knew no one and had to start my senior year at a brand new school.

      After high school, I attended Immaculata University and majored in History and International Relations. I spent the first 5 months after graduation traveling between Supreme Headquarter Allied Powers Europe (S.H.A.P.E.), in Belgium and Amsterdam /Hague area of Holland.  One of the greatest weeks of my life was spent in London exploring Westminster Abby, seeing Cats, Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserable.

My children - Josh, 13 Caroline, 19 and Geoff, 12

      Upon returning I settled in to working. I had a few random temp jobs.  In 1997 I meet the love of my life, we married in 2000.  It was also in 1997 when I took a job as a declassification analyst where I read some pretty interesting papers.  In 2001, I left the position, I was five months pregnant at the time and the commute between Baltimore, MD and Springfield, VA was becoming too much.  I took time off to raise my kids.  I have 3 beautiful children - Caroline, 19; Joshua, 13 and Geoffrey, 12.  In 2002 my husband and I bought our home in Parkville, Maryland.  All three of my children have gone to the same elementary and middle school. They have the life I have always considered to be normal.

     In 2007, I went back to work, picking up part-time jobs here and there.  In 2012, I was hired as a temp work at the Anne Arundel County (AA Co.) Board of Elections. They were ramping up for the Presidential Election.  I had always had a passion for politics, my maternal grandfather once ran for office in New York, so it was in the blood.   I felt I had finally found a home as far as my career was concerned. It was interesting to see the election from the side no one sees until election day.  Due to funding issues, I was released after the election.  

      In 2014 after being in between jobs again and out of school for 20 years, I decided it was a good time to start my Master’s program in Contemporary Communications.  The same week I was called back to work at the AA Co. Board of Elections.   So here I am today, daughter, sister, mother, wife, student with an anticipated graduation of May 2017 and employee in the Election Workers Department of the AA Co. Board of Elections.