Blue Belt Feeling disheartened, advice welcome

I feel really sad and disheartened. I got my blue belt in December 2019. i dont know if ill ever get a purple belt. advice?

My background:

• I’m in the military so I move a lot.
• I am a good training partner and help white belts, i don't injure people, i tap when i need to. I am winning competitions at blue belt. On the mats i am submitting purple and brown belts and getting dominant position consistently against higher belts.
• I love the sport and the people and I know it's good for my mental health. I train wherever i go.
• I started training inconsistently from 2014-2018 and since 2018 i've been as consistent as i can be.
• After leaving the gym i got my blue belt at, i trained at a gym for about 2.5 years. I competed and won pretty consistently there. There was comps i lost as well. About 2 years into that gym i had a bucket handle meniscus tear that required surgery and it took me off the mats for about a year. I still showed up and trained in limited capacity for like 5 months before surgery and tried really hard to earn a purple belt there but it didn't happen. In retrospect, a large part of that was due to my injury. I was pretty bitter about it because before my injury I was well on my way to a purple belt (winning comps, learning more, connecting techniques and building my own style) then it came to a screeching halt.
• full recovery, get to this area and hit the ground running at a new gym. I've been training at this gym for 7 months.
• i've been going to 5 classes a week, competed 3 times (2 gold 1 silver), and definitely leveled up here. I know i'm a better athlete and competitor than when I walked through the door and i'm thankful for that. i developed solid relationships with the people i train with.
• Now I’m moving from this area next week.

I got looked over for promotions to purple belt for the 4th or 5th time. It’s a good gym with solid people and their jiujitsu is good. It just really sucks that everything I did here wasn’t enough.

One of the black belts, who i like and look up to, told me after promotions "if you weren't leaving next week we'd definitely be putting a belt around you". then i said, what am i doing wrong? he said nothing man just keep training. your right where you should be, high level blue belt. What does that mean? like shit. am i not a puple belt because im leaving or because im still a high level blue belt? and if im still a high level blue belt why am i tapping purple and brown belts?

I don't know if its because im leaving next week or if its because I have this seemingly impossible bridge to gap between blue and purple. And if there is a gap then why am I doing well rolling higher belts and in comp?

I’m trying to keep my head up but it’s hard. To me a belt is a reflection of the hard work I’ve put into this journey. I take jiu jitsu very seriously because I love it. Purple belt is a legit rank that holds weight and I would be proud to wear it. It just sucks that it didn't happen for me again even though I tried my best. Ive kept up with training partners i was white belts with that are now brown belts simply because they were at the same gym it feels. Its very disheartening to go from gym to gym and build relationships and compete and train and not get a belt. then leave and do the same thing over again.

At the end of the day i'm going to keep training and im going to get better physically and mentally. I need to look into more techniques while I'm not on the mat. I have a few instructionals and videos i'm going to study. I just don't know what to do. with deployment coming and moving so much it seems like ill never get a purple belt.

Update:

I spoke with one of the black belts. We had an honest and good talk. He said I am definitely at a purple belt skill level. He said the head coach is old school and isn’t going to give anyone a belt if they haven’t trained at the gym for a year minimum. I asked him if he was blowing smoke up my ass and he told me no, that I was on everyone’s list to promote, but the head coach has his standards and he wasn’t going to deviate. My assessment of what he told me was he was telling me the truth.

I am still disappointed because of the amount of effort I put into training for the past 7 months and knowing where I am at. But I am intelligent enough to know that it doesn’t matter and the positives of this are it has lit a fire under my ass to continue training and competing and staying healthy.

Unfortunately I’m going to sandbag the blue belt division and do very well. Im confident I will get promoted at the next gym as long as I put time in. And I will be a good purple belt not a shitty one.

I developed good relationships with people at the gym I just left, and I left on good terms. My jiujitsu improved tremendously during the past seven months and that is what really matters.

There are levels to this sport. Nicky rod didn’t get a purple belt until he won adcc trials. I’m not that good and probably never will be. There are levels of athlete at every belt from white to black. I fall somewhere in the in shape masters 1 average jiujitsu level. And that’s ok. I’m not a full time jiujitsu athlete and don’t want to be, otherwise I would be. I have a full time job and a half to worry about and this a passions project. It’s a marathon not a sprint. I really do want to do this when I’m 60.

I think jiujitsu would be better served if there were white and blue belts like the old days. When you throw rank into the sport, things get weird.

At the end of the day I’m doing this for my mental and physical health and for community, not for belts and recognition. I’m doing this because it’s an art that I enjoy . I’m doing this because there is nothing else I know of that’s an adrenaline rush and makes me feel the way it does.

Thanks for all the advice and perspective it truly helped.