Perspective

February 2nd, 2011 was the worst day of my life up until that point in time, haha. I was completely stressed out with trying to manage an event where we invited several Iraqis on base and getting them where they needed to go. "We updated our paperwork! You need this guy's signature! The facility is unavailable for use even though we had planned on this weeks ago! Don't let the Iraqis out of your sight!" It was a nightmare of getting pulled between military requirements and State requirements... basically it was too much, dealing with all that at once, being on a remote base that was kind of in the middle of nowhere, not really knowing anyone, and dealing with something way out of my league, on my birthday of all days! Yeah, eventually I got to celebrate after a few days with people I know, which was pretty cool, but the actual day itself? Absolute misery.

February 2nd, 2012: I'm a little under the weather, so I stayed in bed until the early afternoon. I think I can handle that.

This should be a good year.

I was looking through old pictures related to my bowling update when I came across a few good memories from seven years ago. A lot of things have happened in the past year, some rather unfortunate, but everything happens for a reason, and every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end right? At least that's how I fall asleep at night... haha in all seriousness though, I do think there are a lot of reasons have a sunny outlook in 2012.

Back when I used to have dreams at night (have not in a while) I used to dream of fixing and healing broken bonds and relationships, which kind of came crashing down. As a wise friend of mine tells me repeatedly, human relationships are my idol, and it's true! I think that human interaction is much more valuable than any kind of material wealth, and I'm aware that sometimes I try too hard. My Iraq experience has taught me to be better capable of juggling loneliness and lack of contact with familiar people, but it's still very important to cultivate our bonds and to be intentionally kind even to people who you're not getting along with - you never know if something irrevocable is going to happen.

Also, I recommend reading Jon's blog: http://porta-jon.blogspot.com

My First Mission!

January 24th, 2011 was the first time I ever stepped outside the wire for a mission. It was a pretty unique experience, going to Sinjar and Qataniyah along with DOS colleagues for their mission, I don't think I had a huge role to play in the whole thing. I'll finish this later... gotta sleep early!

One of the things that stood out to me was the large number of children in the local villages - seems like every street we passed had a couple of kids on it, and I had two big thoughts:

1) Al Qaeda in Iraq had targeted Qataniyah in 2007 with dump truck suicide bombs - essentially, they were targeting children. Absolutely disgusting.

2) Why weren't the kids in school?

Can't imagine living like this...

Something else that was kind of interesting - a lot of the locals had never met an Asian American soldier before, so one of the guys who spoke English translated a conversation for me, and a couple of them whipped out cell phones to take pictures with me. Kind of weird, I wonder if that's what celebrities deal with... haha.

On Second Chances

The ball whizzed through the lane at an extreme velocity. The hardwood lane was no match for the strength of the man who was bowling! As the ball traversed the 60-foot length of track to the pins... it ended up in the gutter. The pins were safe, this turn. I chuckled at the failed effort, but then the bowling sage spoketh:

"That's the thing I love about bowling, you always get a second chance."

He patiently waited for the ball to return to the rack. Again, he attempted to vanquish his foes! His arm extended backwards as he prepared his special delivery, 12 pounds of plastic and urethrane! The ball leaped into the lane upon command, exhibiting its master's signature spin, and smashed with righteous fury into its opponents! A diagonal slash was displayed on the score screen... spare! Redemption!

Much like bowling, I think that life also offers the opportunity for second chances. Yes, things can get serious, and maybe things might not ever be the same again, but I still believe that redemption is always there, if people choose to use it. A lot of things happened in Iraq, and at the time I was extremely burdened with everything emotionally and whatnot, but since then, I don't think I'm all that mad at people who I perceived to have put me in a tough spot. We all reacted to the deployment in different ways, and we're only human - if I didn't grow from the experience, I gained a lot of insight at the very least.

Shoulder Sleeve Insignia - Former Wartime Service

Funny how a little piece of cloth can have huge significance in our lives. Basically, the SSI-FWS is something you earn from deploying to a combat zone (combat patch on your right shoulder) and you typically wear the patch of the unit you were assigned to.

For me, I looked forward to earning my first patch, and got it a week or so after I arrived in Tal Afar. Nothing formal, just asked the military guys if I could get one, and they told me I could have had one as soon as I arrived. Formerly the policy was 30 days, but it changed because of soldiers dying as soon as they arrived in theater or something like that. This particular patch is the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, and I will always treasure it.