The Future

It's 12:10 a.m. on a Saturday morning, which is the Witching Hour for single soldiers here in the barracks... weird shit is going on all around my room, and it's all soaked heavily in alcohol -- the preferred brands being Coors Light and Bacardi.

I have less than two years of service left, and later this morning, I'll be getting on a plane headed for home. Sunday, I'm to stand behind my sister as her sponsor as she's confirmed in the Catholic church.

Earlier today, I photographed the retirement ceremony of Maj. Gen. Terry Tucker, the former chief of armor for the U.S. Army, and later on I interviewed Gen. William Wallace, the new commander of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command.

Afterward, I read the latest Post -30-, and I discovered that I've been honored with an Army Journalist award. I don't really know why, specifically. I hope what I'm doing now is worth their while.

It's weird to look at what I'm doing right now and think of it in terms of what it'll mean for my future. I've got my strange little weekly sports column, which I suppose I've grown into, at least to some extent. I've got my beat, the local sports angle, and that's constantly being attacked by the need to cover stories for the A section.

I think back, sometimes, to specific moments in basic training, like when we were learning how to communicate over a military radio somewhere in rural Georgia or rappelling off a wooden tower, seated in harnesses we'd tied ourselves. Back then, there's no way I could have ever conceived of being here, now, doing what I'm doing.

And maybe once I'm out, doing whatever I'm doing then, I'll have a similar sense of cognitive dissonance of the difference between where I'm currently at and where I came from.

I don't know where I'm headed, as far as my Career [sic] is concerned. I guess the learning's in the journey.

-30-