It has been a day of highs and lows. After about a month of being in limbo, being assigned and then un-assigned to units, I am finally locked into a unit. The good; I am now a tank commander in a unit that is in sore need of leaders. I am very stoked to be in a unit and ready to get caught up with things in the armor world. The bad is I am now in a different unit than the one I was originally going to be assigned to. Why bad? Well, I was going to a group that JUST got back from being deployed, so I was going to be more or less safe from being deployed till late next year. The guys I am going to be with now will be deployed MUCH sooner! I was sort of expecting it, but thought I was going to be set for a while till I was moved. Oh well, it’s all good I guess.
Today, as you well know unless you live under a rock, we saw the dawning of a new era, our 44th president was sworn in brining in the promise of change and maybe more respect from the international community as well as that of the rest of the country. There was a reason Bush had a 25% approval rating. Had, I get to say had now!
Something that I told Tania today. I wasn’t always as open minded as I am now. I give most of the credit to my wife. I was once a narrow minded youth, regurgitating the same ol’ intolerant rhetoric that most immature male tend to do. Bashing or poking fun of anything and anyone who was “different”. It’s amazing the crap we will feed ourselves to be accepted by others. During my four year break in service I was going to college. During that time I began to see the true value of open-mindedness. I finally opened my eyes with the help of my wife. I guess I had myself convinced that the views I had were the right ones to have. Then after a few talks with her, (I think starting down the Pagan path might have had something to do with it as well), I really began to question myself, and rightly so. Life is too short to be narrow minded. I’m still growing, at least emotionally, so by no means am I cured of being a jackass from time to time, but I like to think I am a hell of a lot more open and enlightened than I was when I was in my early 20’s. That’s why now I feel sorry for the younger soldiers that I see and work with spouting the same crap I did a long time ago.
