Any Soldier

About a month ago I went to my Feature Writing class and as an assignment the teacher gave us a dollar and told us to spend the dollar and write a feature story on how we spent the dollar. 

I immediately knew that I wanted to write a soldier gone to war, wait for their response and write my story. Impossible... the story was due in 2 days. So instead I decided to write my letter and write a story based on what I wrote. 

That night I went home and wrote a letter. I had know idea who I was going to send this letter to. I knew I few people who were deployed, mainly spouses of my moms employees or family friends I didn't really know. But I wanted this letter to go to someone I really didn't know.

I googled "send a letter to a soldier." The first search to come up was a site called "Any Soldier." I read though the site and I realized that you could mail to soldiers who get little to no mail at all. This is exactly what I wanted to do!

The bad part... I had to pick from a list of over 2,000 soldiers who I wanted to send my letter to. How could I possibly pick who to send to?

The first person I clicked on, James. I read through the message he wrote, but I didn't know if I should send it to him or not.

I then went through a few others based on male, female, what branch they were in, when they posted. But I couldn't decided on who to send to. Finally I decided I should pick something that was significant to me... so I thought my birthday. I clicked on a few but it was recommending not sending to anyone who they haven't heard from in that long. 

I then decided that I would go back to the most recent added people count down 8 (my lucky number) Army people (since that is who we mostly served at my internship). 

James  ---> was the 8th Army soldier on the list. Fate. And my letter would be sent to him.

It had been almost two weeks and I had heard anything from him. I was watching a Christmas movie and I began to think about the website. So I went back to it and began to read more on it. 

It is the job of any soldier who is on the website to pass on the mail to someone who doesn't get any mail. (Uh-oh,  I didn't read enough!) I was so set on James getting my letter mainly because I believe there was a reason he was the 8th Army soldier.

From there I used facebook. I found him and sent him probably the weirdest message he has ever received in his life. I explained that he should be getting a letter and that although it's his job to pass it on I really want him to keep it. 

Turns out I messaged the right person and the letter hasn't been passed on. 

James is currently in Italy and is deploying within a few days. We have talked everyday via facebook chat for 2 weeks now. We are both looking forward to him getting my letter when he gets to Afghanistan. He will be deployed for about a year and 3 months. And we have plans to write the entire time. 

I ask that everyone keeps him in your prayers for a safe return home! 

Since the summer.

As much as I would like to say that not much has happened since my last post- I would be wrong to do so. 

Over the last few months I have learned a great deal not only about myself, but about life in general. 

I have learned that even though college is the time to go out and experience and make mistakes and try things before you get out into the "real world," sometimes its not all worth it. Sure everyone has those experiences and mistakes but there comes a time in life when you have to realize its time to put it behind you, grow up and stop making those decisions. Mainly because as you get older you should be more mature and start finding those ideas as immature and irresponsible. 

Over the months I have learned that some people make this realization and others... well they  simply haven't hit the "grow up" stage. 

I learned a lot about myself as well. I have finally come to realize that I always put others before myself. Too many times I have second guessed my life plans and have been willing to change them for others, including boys to help save a relationship. But that's not life and in reality I would never truly be happy if I did that.

I have finally settled on a career choice and since the summer I have more determination than ever to fulfill those dreams.

The summer opened my eyes to career closer than I ever thought I could get to the Army besides enlisting. I learned of the Army Public Affairs Intern Program and even though I admit that I have had some doubt about it-- it is truly what I want to do. 

My life cannot revolve around others and my happiness cannot be put aside. As scary as the real world is to me and the idea of possibly failing... I don't want to live with regret or "what if's."

I am a junior in college, now 21, and realized I will be graduating in exactly one year. No one knows what their future holds for them-- but they can help predict the outcome by what they put into it.