Troops and Trials

In a couple of hours my best friend Dustin will be in the air on his way to his Navy boot camp for 8 weeks. My brother made the announcement Christmas morning that he was enlisting in the Air Force. The better part of a dozen friends I've made at Tarleton over the years are/were involved in ROTC. A guy I used to date in high school is currently in the Army. The list could go on and on but I'm guessing you get my drift. I'm surrounded by countless brave men and woman dedicated to serving their country body and soul. I count myself lucky to have such self sacrificing friends and family and I don't thank them often enough for what they do.

It was hard saying so-long to Dustin (in my family we don't ever say goodbye). He's always been there for me... even when I was in Utah. Out of all my friends at Tarleton, he called and updated me the most often; outdoing all my other past roomies and frat brothers with ease. He keeps reminding me that it's just like when I moved to Utah for 6 months... I came back for a visit about 2 months in and so will he when he gets done with boot camp. The only difference is that when I was in Utah, we could call, text, email and IM constantly! This is more reminiscent of my brother's two year mission where all we could do really was write letters. At least I have some practice in that area and writing is something that I enjoy. And I'll have the plus of having his "son" Gus around to cuddle with when I start missing him too much. 


I suppose that seeing my "Brother" go off to military land will be good practice for me having to see my actual biological brother go himself. I should honestly be used to Bruver being gone (the whole two year mission thing) but it's still not going to be easy. Sure he was in a foreign country before hand.. but not in the middle of any hardcore danger (unless you count Taiwan's traffic... on second thought, yeah, that counts). I'll take doors slamming in his face over any sort of projectiles any day. But it's what he wants... what he's wanted since before his mission actually. 

I just can't help but worry.. it's in my nature. 

Clean Slate??

Every year at this time, your friends and family are flooding you with all of their resolutions for the new year: loose weight, finish those books, run that marathon, tackle the nasty lack of organization problem... you know the drill. Well this year I was presented with the ever popular "I'm going to forgive" proposition from a few different people (and yes, one or two directed towards me... no one is perfect). I find it interesting, and slightly refreshing, that these people are being honest; they will try to forgive but make no promise of trying to forget. Fair enough. I believe there's always going to be a debate over whether or not it's true forgiveness if you don't forget it and move on. A lot of people over the years (including myself at times) have had issues with the concept of "burying the hatchet" only to leave the handle sticking out of the ground. Yeah the painful issue is out of sight... but that handle is conveniently there to grab and pull the issue out again when it's beneficial in, more than likely, a completely separate argument. Don't be naive or stubborn and claim you haven't done it. You have. But on the flip side, I don't think it's altogether wise to completely forget about a past wrong doing. It would be nice to believe that everyone learns from their mistakes... but more often than not, we do prove ourselves to be "creatures of habit" and do tend to make the same mistakes over and over again until we truly do WANT to change... even then it's not always a walk in the park. I mess up and I'll be the first to admit it. I'm not trying to have a pessimistic outlook on life by refusing to have a sugar coated resolution of "I'm going to be 100% better in every single thing I do" ... I'm being realistic in saying that every day, I'm going to try and be the best me that I can. And that's not something that I save for the first and last few weeks of a year... it's an every day/every year/every moment deal for me and has been for as long as I can remember. And I think it's true for a large portion of the people you meet everyday. Stop using the excuse of a "fresh start" to start being the person you know you can be.

On that note: Time for another book!! I just finished reading "forget about it" by Caprise Crane. It's a hilarious book about a pushover who takes advantage of an accident to fake having amnesia in order to start living life in a way she felt she couldn't before. She thwarts her pushy/oppressive mother and sister, stands up to a boss who has been claiming her work, and kicks her d-bag/sorry excuse for a boyfriend to the curb. On the surface these are all great things but the person she starts becoming takes away from some of the good that she was. The real kicker is that she ends up having another accident where she REALLY gets amnesia. It's interesting to see the difference between the character in the beginning, the pretender, and the true victim. (For some of those psychology buffs out there it's a fun farce of the whole ID/Ego/Super Ego concept). I don't want to spoil any more but it definitely got my mind thinking about the person I would choose to be if I was able to take advantage of a situation like that. Food for thought.

Well I'm off to clean and finish tackling my own organizational messes... as well as give attention to the "Needy One" (AKA: Gus: Dustin's chihuahua (pssst! go read his blog at www.dustinsparkman.blogspot.com)). I promise I'll try not to give a review of EVERY book I read... just the good ones!