Well let's see... Where to begin?  I was born.  I grew up.

I enlisted into the Army on February 5, 2010 and I didn't ship for basic training until August 4th 2010.  In that span of time I was very unfit and quite nervous about what I had committed myself to, for what seems like an eternity of an enlist period to my mother (roughly 7 years left; IRR included).  I don't think I fully understood what I had committed myself to despite all the research and studying I did prior to basic training.  

In hindsight, I have no major regrets, but only smaller temporary ones.  My unit will be deploying to Afghanistan exactly one year from now.  When I learned of this, the impact of what this means didn't hit meuntil recently.  I started taking account of a lot of the comforts I have and and enjoy very much, namely the closeness of my family and friends.  Then there is the convenience of doing what I will, as I see fit.  I'm fiercely independent and private, in spite of what I present online via social media.  The hardest part of basic training for me was the loss of control and privacy, and this blog post marks the first time I've told anybody outside of those who saw me break down in private, just six days prior to BCT graduation.  I was so happy to be leaving that I was hit with a flood of emotion and wept for half an hour.  I am praying to God that I, first and above all, will be safe during our deployment.  And I pray that I find that I am centered and capable of withstanding the stress and other worldliness of the strange land we'll be staying in for one year.

This is what is on my heart at the moment, and I thought I'd be candid about it.