Since today is the day that we, as a nation, unite to remember those servicemen and women that gave the ultimate sacrifice by throwing barbeques and getting great deals on furniture, I thought that I should give my thoughts on the matter.
As a kid, Memorial Day was just a day off from school. I didn't really have a way to connect to the holiday. After all, there were no major military engagements that I knew about at the time and I didn't know of anyone that was a veteran (I wasn't a very observant child, so who knows how many vets I actually knew).
As an adult, things are quite different. Certainly having a brother that is a veteran helps me make a connection to the holiday, but I'm also much more aware of how many people I've encountered that are vets. I've worked with veterans at every job I've worked at since 2009 (I don't know if I work with any vets at my new job, but considering that it's only been two weeks, I think that's excusable). They have all been very different people with different personalities, but they all shared the fraternity of having been servicemen and women at a previous stage in their lives.
As many of you (if not all) know, I began the process of joining the Air Force as an officer last year. I took the AFOQT (and apparently impressed my recruitment officer, but I never got the actual score) and started training for boot camp, but because my credit score was too low, there was a hold put on my application. Looking back, it wasn't a good fit for me. I'm not very competitive and there were no jobs that would really employ my skills as a writer properly. Even though I think it's for the best that I wasn't able to join, I gained a greater appreciation for what's required to be a part of the military.
So, even though I'm mostly using this day off as an excuse to relax, it really is a wonderful thing to be able to recognize the people who have died in the service of this great country.
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