Futures

To say the least, my perspective on life has been changed tremendously over the past month or two – how long has it been since I last posted? For one thing, my short term future has been set, though not literally in stone, it’s about as close as it gets. The academy has accepted my application for reappointment and I have accepted their offer. I have signed my life away, or at least a 7 year chunk of it.

(In other news, the fan in my computer is dying and making an awful racket, which has contributed to my lack of blogging – and computering in general)

I will be spending a week this summer as a Platoon TAC for JROTC summer camp at in Gruber Oklahoma; Funny how futures link back to so many memories. I think that my path through the academy was laid in for real at JCLC the summer after my freshman year. Lt. Col. Kennedy decided to sit down at my table at lunch and talk to me about them. I guess I was more than a little convinced.

The biggest uncovered future, I guess, really is nothing but an uncovered past: What got me here to begin with – both here to the academy and here to California.

I did not join the Air Force to become another among the many. I joined with the intent of becoming one among the many but not cut quite of the same cloth. The defining moment that most easily illustrates that came from a day that I am certain none of my classmates even took note of.

State benchmark testing was well underway, and as such, we were not in our usual classes when the pledge of allegiance started (have I blogged about this before? I’ve told the story so many times before . . .). I was generally in my JROTC class – where of course everyone at least stood, even if they refused to say anything. This day was different.

Instead of saying the pledge with my fellow cadets, I was surrounded by my IB classmates – my colleagues who were earmarked to be the best in whatever field tickled their fancy. It didn’t even occur to me that the pledge might mean anything different to them than to my JROTC classmates. When the intercom cordially invited us to stand however, I found myself to be one among two who chose to participate – I think we were both shocked, because I could not hear them saying anything and I could barely hear myself.

The best and the brightest don’t believe in this country – so why does it come as any surprise when things begin to fall apart? – but that’s really not the point at all.

Since then my purpose, my intention in serving has been to protect the freedom of my classmates not to stand up if that is what they should choose. That is something that I easily forgot in my first two years at USAFA – making this year a necessity.

This past Saturday we participated in the May day march in San Diego – they are held around the country, but that is where we were. I was extremely uncomfortable with the situation on the way there, however, I was so directly reminded of my initial intent – and another layer to it – that I am without regrets for going.

It is imperative that the people in this country who have a voice lend their ears to those who do not. That is what we did on Saturday and that is another layer to what I hope to do through whatever avenues I have available to me – through whatever career paths this all may lead me down. I will follow this faithfully – and pray that I never again forget the roots that led me here. Without them, I am but another grain of rice in a vat of horchata.

This country has the potential to rise to even greater heights – or to fall to all-time depths. The deciding factor will be our investment in its success.