A very short time ago, I said good bye forever to Afghanistan, and hello again America. There has rarely been a time in which I was so happy.
A lot has happened since the last post I wrote, I'd like to apologize forthright for the missing traffic on the blog site. I couldn't say whether it was lack of motivation on my part, a lack of time, or a lack of brain power. Regardless, I apologize, so let's move on.
The return home was an experience similar to what I thought it would be, though far grander than I imagined. The amount of joy simply from looking out the window of the bus ride home, it's ridiculous. I never thought I would be so happy to hear a thunderstorm coming, or smell the balmy Iowa summer nights.
It's a frustrating change at times, I'll admit to that. On multiple documentaries or in books, you'll hear veterans talk about the absence of adrenaline back here in the civilian world. There just isn't the same excitement in speeding ten miles over the limit on I-80 as there is moving fifteen miles an hour down a curvy, craggy goat path, crossing your fingers that an IED doesn't strike. Other people have said as much, I'm not breaking new ground here, I'm simply verifying the information. I have yet to get really, really stoked about something. I'm plenty happy, mind you, just not so excited.
The people and things in our lives don't wait up for us, regardless of what we're doing. You can't come home and expect your family and friends to be the same crazy people they were before. Your favorite gas station, the one that was two blocks away and you used to walk to as a teenager, don't expect it to be there when you return. Twelve months is a long time, much longer than we give it credit for. And the truth of the matter is, no matter how you feel about it, you have changed, changed a great deal actually. Sometimes that's hard to accept or deal with.
It's still shitty when someone slams a door behind me, or knocks a chair over when I'm not looking. My reactions generally vary but essentially are the same defensive shutters, the quick head turn.
Never underestimate a defensive Combat Engineer, because we will fix our own problems. During the last few weeks of the deployment we would be eating in the chow hall, and inevitably one of us diners would be freaked out or startled by the slamming of this little ice cream freezer that stood in the corner. For whatever reason, there was no gently closing this little glass door, oh no, it HAD to slam down ever time.
Well, this is the type of thing that will get on a combat veteran's nerves, as I was saying before, and finally one day my Lieutenant had enough. The door slammed as a local national walked away unwrapping some chocolate ice cream bar. The whole table jumped, and LT just calmly stood up, walked over to the ice chest, and gently tore the door of it's tracks. He set it back down next to the freezer, and resumed eating dinner.
This is the kind of thing we are all dealing with as we slowly grow accustomed to life in America again. It is certainly one of the most relieving, calming, joyous occasions of my life, but it is certainly just a little difficult.
Thank god I can drink again.
Farewell readers, it's been fun if nothing else.
So let's keep on keeping on...
