One thing I find funny about being in the military is being repeatedly yoinked from your life plans to do defence plans. You just have to put much of your life on pause and jump into a new reality that has been imposed on you. What I find most interesting is after a few days you tend to fall into the new routine and your other life seems like a dream. (Or nightmare, depending on your perspective I suppose.) It's interesting really, and highlights how our different levels of memory work and you end up remembering memories more, rather than the memories direct, the longer you are in this new reality.
On a side, but still related, note, one of the "benefits" of going though all this is it does force you to think harder about what is important to your life, especially when you get back from being away and have to decide what to get back to in the time you're home. Sometimes it's a case of "hmm, can I make any meaningful progress on X in two weeks?", but it also encourages you to try to use both aspects of free time better.
Sometimes.
Sometimes you just get back and can't be stuffed. But this is my thoughts. Your milage may vary...
