This last week my spouse and I attended the annual ACC Commander’s and Spouses conference in Langley, VA. I was excited to go! I was hoping to learn a few things about our role for the next few years.

We arrived on a Tuesday night so that we could go to the icebreaker social. They held it in a very cool location-an old armory. It was called The Vanguard and it is a multi-functional space. There was a trivia night going on while we were eating and drinking upstairs.

Wednesday was when the conference actually started. I was slightly nervous. Not only were there General Officer spouses there but you never know how these things are going.

My unrest was initially justified. Our principle leader started the conference with a question to us: “What do you bring to the table?” Talk about intimidation! The purpose of the question was to get us to open up and not only state our name and where we are from. Many times military spouses associate themselves with their husband’s or wives rank as opposed to their own identity.

That little nudge meant a lot. It reminded us that we are our own people. The week continued with similar boosts to our lives. We heard about creating communities, the new health system that is being implemented, as well as how to mobilize in a crisis.

We had speakers from all over but a special surprise was from a military spouse who had started her own business. Katelyn Tinsley began her non-profit, Homefront Room Revival, to fill a need. She wanted a way to give purpose to spouses as well as help them create their own home. The business helps E-5 and below Airmen and their families to furnish their homes by using cast-off furniture and simple DIY projects. She also does “Dec the Deployment” where she brightens up the lives of spouses by decorating their homes for the holidays.

We got a tutorial in reverse canvas art. Katelyn and some of her team brought a craft for us to do. We stenciled fall art onto the canvas and then we were able to take it home afterwards. I’m not usually that crafty but I was able to do it. It’s empowering to create something from nothing.

One of the best parts of the conference was when we toured NASA. We had a briefing on the newest trip to the moon called Artemis. Artemis is the female twin of Apollo and the new mission is woman-centric. Then the trajectory is to head to Mars. It sounds very exciting.

We went on to the Landing and Impact center where they initially practiced how Apollo would land on the moon. It is a huge structure with a landing pool and everything. Now they use it to test planes, the seats on them and other various vehicles. The videos alone were worth it!

We also spent time at the National Transonic Facility which houses a giant wind tunnel. Unfortunately, we couldn’t step inside of it since they were ready to do a test run later in the week. And then we saw a robot at work in another building. That robot, ISAAC, is working to standardize composites within structures. That brief was way over my head but the robot was cool.

This week gave me hope that these conferences are worth it. The planners just need to remember to save some time for chit-chatting with fellow attendees. That’s the real reason we go anyways!