Non-Precipitation Advisory!

"I know I'm not a dream and I know I didn't create the show."

I went out to dinner with Sean the other night. He was leaving the next morning for bootcamp/officer training etc. I couldn't wrap my mind around someone volunteering to enter into the ugliness of war. At first I just asked him general questions about what he would be doing, when and where. After a couple glasses of wine I finally asked him what he thinks he's going to do over there to make anything better. What are you specifically going to do?

His answer was important. It was the first answer that I could understand.

"It's not what I'm going to do over there Mary. It's what I'm not going to do over there. And when I'm an officer it's what I'm going to make sure none of my men do. War is awful, there's no escaping that, but it's the actions that are not going to be taken on my watch that will make a difference hopefully."

I'm paraphrasing of course...and I could never do Sean's words justice, but that's basically what I heard him say. I had never thought of it in that way before he explained it to me. He's going over there to make sure that what happens around him and the actions of the people he's in charge of reflect humanity and respect all parties involved. And that I can respect and support. It's not about going over there and "kicking some ass". Anyway, I just thought I'd share that.

We ended up at a bar in Hodgkins fittingly named Murphy's Down Under. We drank and talked and made plans for when we both return from the things we feel we're called to be doing right now in our lives. I'm not saying I'm called to travel to Australia with my boyfriend. It's more of a victory lap that I've been promising myself since college, along with an opportunity to write and share my story.

Gotta cut this short. My co-workers just presented with me an Australia Survival Pack. I'm going to miss them so much.

-Mary