Well by now, you should all know that I'm big on quotes. So, expect at least a couple more in this post. Again, it has been awhile since my last post. I have to make sure that I really feel something before I put it into black and white. I have been thinking about this for a couple days now.
You never know the imprint that you are going to have on another person, whether you meet them in passing at a bus stop, or they make your delicious sandwich that you have for lunch while passing casual conversation. I am gaining valuable lessons from the Army, more than I willingly signed up for. One being goodbyes.
My mother will tell you how much I love goodbyes (can you detect the sarcasm?). I have never been good at them. They always feel so depressing. Maybe this is because death is a kind of goodbye that is the most painful. Final. But I'm not unreasonable. I know that not every goodbye ends in death. Hardly any do, as a matter of fact. So, why the painful resistance to them? I'm not sure I will ever know.
Some think, "Every goodbye makes the next hello closer." Not always true, but it sounds nice. What it should go into more detail with is that with every goodbye, you have to also move on, in order to be more open to the next hello. This is true on a deployment. People are constantly coming and going. Back to the states for R&R leave, leaving home again to come back to the sandbox. Meeting people here and developing friendships and maybe even relationships--the inevitable goodbye that will leave anyone's heart aching for the loss of that friendship. I would run out of fingers if I tried to count on them how many wonderful, inspiring people I have met and had to say goodbye to so far. I've even shed some tears for a few. On a deployment, no matter how difficult your job may be, you develop connections. It is necessary for survival. At the end of the day you can't go home to your husband, or wife, or mother, or roommate and digest the happenings. You go back to the room that you share with the people you work with. You spend the entirety of your day with the exact same people. Any normal person would see how this can cause someone to go insane. However, the human species is incredible. If the assigned group doesn't suit the person, that same person will find a group to belong to: Hispanics and salsa night, poetry night group, church goers, country dancers, hip hop dancers, or the Wednesday night bingo players. No matter what it is, they will find a place where they feel they can belong. And these are the people who it will be the hardest to say goodbye to.
The 377th Transportation Company out of Fort Bliss, Texas has 'taken me in' so to speak. In the words of their 1SG, I have become an 'honorary member.' I have the patch to prove it. The unit, as a whole, is an amazing group of people. They are competitive and have a sense of cohesiveness that rivals any other company in our Battalion, and I would argue, the entire post. They are good at sports, yes. But it is more that that. Even those in the company who aren't good at sports show up to the different events with a sense of pride in the other Soldiers in their company who are winning every race, event, or game. It gives you the sense of family togetherness that I crave. I have seen this before, everyone has. It is the ideal. The 'band of brothers' so to speak that is every Army unit, right? No. Unfortunately this is not the norm. So, it is exceptionally nice to see it, and be taken in by it. They leave soon, they are just counting down the days now and I will miss them so much. I know that never again will it be the same with any of them. They are going on to continue their lives, and I am eventually going to finish out my own tour and head home -- where I will do the exact same thing. Maybe I will see some of them again, most likely I won't. But they have made an impact on my life that I will never forget.
"How lucky I am to have known someone who was so hard to say goodbye to."
