Originally Posted by
henks
3. This one might take me a while to answer...Being in the military has done a lot for me. When I came in, I thought I was pretty mature, and would be able to handle things. When I got done with basic training and the SF academy, I had a much greater appreciation of everything. Sometimes you take living near your friends and family for granted, and when I joined, you realized how much different it is. When I was deployed to Iraq in '06, that was something else. If you want to go to a place where you have no amenities, a place where you can learn to appreciate things you have here, I suggest you go to the desert. We had 6 phones for a base of 5k, computers that were always broken, food you got sick of the 2nd month there. We had to walk everywhere...to the gym, the MWR, the DFAC, the PX, even to work sometimes. When I came back, it was so weird. Having a cell phone, a car, Wal Mart. I was so grateful to actually know what it's like not to have anything like that over there, so I'm able to appreciate what I have now.
I may say that I hate what I do sometimes, or wish I would have just gone to college instead. But at the end of the day, when I see my uniform hanging up, I just think to myself that if I had the chance to go back in time...I wouldn't change a dang thing. The things I've done, the friends I've made, the experiences I've had....you can't replace it. I appreciate everything I have today, because who knows, it might be gone tomorrow.