A day where we honor all of those men and women who have sacrificed so much of their lives and sometimes they give just that.
16 years ago on 9 September 1998, I officially became a veteran.
16 years ago!
I still remember that day, what I was wearing, who was there with me, and the feeling of anticipation, excitement, and fear.
I didn't know that I was capable of scaling walls, climbing towers and repelling down them, shooting guns, breathing in CS gas and realizing how much snot a person's head can hold, being away from my family for so long, meeting people I never would have dreamed of meeting, learning how to communicate with the phonetic alphabet, talking over the mysterious radio wire that all the Sergeants made the privates look for endlessly, traveling across the world to a foreign country where I worked in a haunted office and tracked missiles and storms, and where God introduced me to my husband and our son was born at, and where my life really just began. When I signed those papers, I didn't know that I would still be in 16 years later looking at probable medical retirement. I didn't know how much my life would change.
I'm so glad I didn't know.
Not because it has been a bad ride, but rather because it has been an amazing ride of learning what I am capable of.
The army has taught me so many life lessons that I would have never learned somewhere else. Not many mom's can tear apart a M16 or M4 and put it back together in her sleep. Not many mom's can do push ups better than most men. Not many mom's can march for hours in combat boots that have been spit shined so well you can see your reflection.
However, not many mom's made build a bear dogs with special love in their hearts so her kids would have something to hug at night when she wasn't there. Not many moms have missed first birthdays, and many other ones because of training
or deployments. Not many moms needed to record bed time stories so she could still read to her kids every night. Not many mom's cried themselves to sleep more often than not unsure if what they were doing was the right thing for their kids.
And not many mom's have had the pleasure of their daughter getting so excited to be picked to escort a veteran at her school's Veteran's Day Assembly. And to have a daughter who hates to shop for clothes ask to go shopping for a dress so she looked nice for the day. Not many mom's have had their eyes tear up watching her daughter sing
The National Anthem and say the Pledge of Allegiance with a couple hundred other 5th and 6th graders.
Yup, I'm a sap.
You know, I feel really weird when people thank me for my service because I feel as if I didn't do anything special or heroic. It took until I saw this past weeks Grey's Anatomy when Owen tells a veteran patient who felt like the services out there to help us were for those who actually fought in the war and not for those of us who supported it, that she gave all she had to give and that was important because only she could do that, for me to realize that I gave all that I had to give as well. Perhaps all of the thank yous I get are because they themselves were unable to give themselves or maybe they have been where I have been. I don't know, but I do know that I am humbled each and every time some one tells me thanks. And I so very much appreciate all the love and kindNess veterans are given today.
If you see me hugging eldry men and women strangers , don't worry about it....more than likely I am telling them thank you for their service so that I can wear the uniform today.
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