Remembering 9/11 While Serving Overseas

First off I know that it has been a few weeks since 9/11 but as is the way with my blog I write about things when I get the time and start to write them.

Most everyone remembers where they were when the events of 9/11 unfolded, I am no different.  I was coming down the stairs from my poly sci class at the university of louisville on that Tuesday Morning.  Myself and the professor and another student were coming down when the administrative assistant for the poly sci department came running out of her office and said a plane had just hit the World Trade Center.  Then she took the very small black and white TV and turned it for us all to watch the news, as we were watching the events we saw another plane hit and then the people, running, jumping and scattering.  It was shocking, it was crazy, something unforgettable.  My story isn’t much different then any one else's that day who was not in New York at the time.  Watching these crazy, unbelievable events unfold in front of us on TV miles and miles away.  

I was a sophomore in college at the time, I was and have always been proud to be an american, I get chocked up hearing that song as corny as that may be, but I do.  I was enjoying college, loving the scholarship program I was in and learning a lot about myself and what I wanted to do with my life.  That day really solidified that I wanted to do something to serve and help others.  Don’t get me wrong I never imagined or thought of myself as a Soldier (not then anyway).  But, I did know I wanted to give back, I guess I had always been that way though, I have never been about making a lot of money.

Since I was five I wanted to be a lawyer, I have no idea why but I did.  I don’t have any family who are lawyers, so it wasn’t because I saw them, and I don’t really think at that age it was because it looked like a cool job to me from TV.  I honestly don’t know why.  But this blog isn’t about why i became a lawyer or even why I joined the army neither were related to 9/11 at least not directly. It is about remembering 9/11 while in a deployed environment.

Now I need to be honest, I actually was not in afghanistan on 9/11 I was on my R and R but this year being deployed has been interesting, eye opening, and life changing.  Mostly though I have learned a lot about myself, and even more respect then I had before for those Soldiers who go out everyday putting their life in danger, looking for those we are tracking.  I’ve been in the Army a few years so this isn’t my first 9/11 serving.  It is however different when you are in afghanistan, seeing those who are fighting, see the good and the bad a lot of times, trust me the news does not portray how it really it here.  Most of what we do is mundane, but we do build relationships and try and show the locals there is a better way.   For the most part we are not out shooting up villages and breaking though things, we are just simply looking for information and trying to give show that there are better ways then living in garbage and burning whatever they can find.

Being over here serving and seeing the cause that we are fighting first hand reminds me almost daily that there are people who are fighting to for our freedoms and safety back home and how grateful I am to be a small part of that.

I am going back to a new type of family.

So I have been back on the camp for almost a week and it is like I never left for almost three weeks. I just jumped back into work, talking with people singing at church and going to the gym (although that was harder than the rest). I let off my last post talking about how it felt when my sisters left, I got homesick really, missing my family missing America. It was difficult but this time it past much more quickly.

Having someone (my friend in Italy) who completely understood what I was going through meant more to me than anything. She understood my need to relax but still hang out and my feeling even if I didn't voice them the right way. It was exactly what I needed before coming back here. At first I was kind of dreading it, because of how things were just a couple weeks before I left. But then as I was heading back here I realized I was a little excited to come back, to see my deployment family. As much as this place can be dreadful at times we are all in it together and there are those that do look out for each other. I was excited to see them again to sit outside and chill and hang out. It was weird to be feeling that way but you do make a family out here, one that can commiserate when times are bad and the food sucks.

I was ready to get back to the life that has now become normal. Walking around with a weapon, always wearing the same thing and putting my hair in a bun. I'm not going to say it is a great life it isn't but it has become normal. As soon as I put back on my uniform after r and r I Rees he'd for my weapon. I felt like I was constantly missing something until I picked it back up from the safe it was in while I was traveling. There was something comforting about getting back to normal. I was also extremely thankful that I came back to Much less drama though.




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