Support the troops.
What does that even mean?
Until this year, my perspective of the military and troops originated from watching Pearl Harbor on the days I stayed home from school with the flu. Every sick day somehow resulted in this movie preference. However, this foreign image become real this past year thanks to a friend by the name of Nick Mckean.
For a brief moment in time I got a glimpse of the life of a military family.
What an amazing glimpse it was.
Of course easy is not one of the words I would choose to describe this glimpse.
I do not envy Nick's mother who not only sent her husband but now her son to the opposite side of the world to fight and defend what we often take for granted.
I do not envy the pain and fear that come with sending a loved one closer to the arms of danger. How could you? It requires selflessness not only for the soldier leaving but for the loved ones sending.
War is real. It becomes even more real when it becomes personal.
I never expected to have this type of experience. More than anything I have learned the essence of true patriotism and selflessness.
Something inside me has changed.
I never want to take for granted the liberties and freedoms I am blessed with.
July 4th means much more to me than candy at the parades and a few fireworks.
I look at the flag differently.
The liberties we enjoy are not free.
I am grateful to know our country is supported and defended by individuals like Nick.
Thank you Nick for teaching me what it means to be an American.
Before the military banquet.
His unit is deployed to Afghanistan for one year.
They have been training in Texas and New Mexico the past few weeks.
They leave for Afghanistan in a few short days.
"O Beautiful for Heroes proved,
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life."
-America The Beautiful
