15 Years

 

Yes, This was a Facebook post from earlier tonight.  And I at the risk of being redundant, I am still posting it here, too.  Because it's been really important to me.  So, just ignore me if I bore you with repetition.  And I suppose I should write about all of these things at some point.  I just don't have the emotional composure to do it tonight. 

 

Tomorrow marks 15 years since the significant day in my life. It was the day I boarded an airplane in Oakland on a one-way ticket, procured by the United States Government, to Philadelphia, PA. There I caught a bus, with 83 other young and ignorant souls, to Cape May, NJ. I had no idea what the future would hold, I just knew that I needed to get out of that one-horse town and I wasn't smart enough to go to college. So, I enlisted in the Coast Guard. Even though I had no idea what that meant, I left the comfort of my sheltered, small town life in the hopes of finding direction and purpose. Although my enlistment was a short four and a half years, there hasn't been a day that I have been without the Coast Guard since June 6, 1998. It is responsible, in part, for all of the most meaningful things that have ever happened to me. It was where I learned what leadership meant. It was where I developed a sense of self worth. It was where I me...t the man I was married to for 12 years, and even though our marriage, failed, or friendship did not. It was the six states.  And the little boy who was born during the first Kodiak snow in 2007. It was the college degree, paid for in part, by the Montgomery GI Bill. It was what made that education more meaningful that it would have been without the experience. It was the security and the pay check. It was and is, the people. Oh, the people  The people who have been the most substantial influences in my life. The friendships forged a decade and a half ago, that by the mercy of the universe, are still more important and profound than I ever imagined I'd have. Some people may think "wow, what a one dimensional existence. It's the only way of life you know." I beg to differ, it was that one way ticket, 15 years ago, that has given my life so many dimensions. It is also where I so often find my inner peas.  It is also, very often, why I need a little peas. And either way, my gratitude is immeasurable.