Some of the best advice I ever received came from my sister many years ago. After a particularly rough period in my life, she told me not to attack all my problems at once. She told me to focus on one area at a time, fix it, and move on to the next one. After time, you’ll forget what you were so down about in the first place. It seems simple, but I’ve used this many times in my life and it continues to work until this day. When I left off last night, I was definitely in quite the funk. I decided at about two in the morning (darn that jet-lag) to put her ideas to work. I decided to wake up in the morning and take a nice hot shower and attack today with as positive an attitude as I could muster. After that, I would set out to start over here in Baghdad with a new group of classmates. Amazingly enough, life one-upped me.
The first two people I ran into in the shower (… the shower TRAILER, not the actual shower … get your mind out of the gutter), were two guys I knew from my previous class who had fallen behind in the training for one reason or another. This was quite the relief, as I would not have to head to class without knowing anyone (also I had people to eat breakfast with … one of the other great tidbits of advice I received in college was to never eat alone unless you really want to). As I surveyed the class, I realized that I knew quite a few of the folks in the class from previous Navy days. The rest of the folks in the class were as enjoyable to be around as the last class. This came as a huge relief, as the last thing I wanted was to sit in a room for the next week with no one to talk to. Long story short, today turned out to be significantly better than I had ever hoped for. I’m not saying all of the things in my life are perfect yet, but it’s a darn good start.
The best part of the day was discovering that the new class started last Wednesday, so I was able to pick up right where I left off. I also found out that the job I had been looking forward to before I left is still mine (at this point … all things are subject to change in the ‘Navy of One’). All this made today’s classes somewhat enjoyable (even though I’d had this day of instruction before).
In what shouldn’t be a surprise to me at this point in my career; even though you change the personnel, the antics remain the same. I just watched two of my tentmates participate in the time honored ritual of the poor man’s haircut. Mind you, haircuts here in the desert run a mind-numbing three dollars. These two decided to do it the old fashioned way. Unfortunately, shortly after this photo was taken, the two were overtaken by clouds of white smoke. Apparently, they forgot that small appliances designed to work in America don’t do as well when used in 220 volt foreign outlets. Once again, I’m home. Until tomorrow.
-Grease out.
The first two people I ran into in the shower (… the shower TRAILER, not the actual shower … get your mind out of the gutter), were two guys I knew from my previous class who had fallen behind in the training for one reason or another. This was quite the relief, as I would not have to head to class without knowing anyone (also I had people to eat breakfast with … one of the other great tidbits of advice I received in college was to never eat alone unless you really want to). As I surveyed the class, I realized that I knew quite a few of the folks in the class from previous Navy days. The rest of the folks in the class were as enjoyable to be around as the last class. This came as a huge relief, as the last thing I wanted was to sit in a room for the next week with no one to talk to. Long story short, today turned out to be significantly better than I had ever hoped for. I’m not saying all of the things in my life are perfect yet, but it’s a darn good start.
The best part of the day was discovering that the new class started last Wednesday, so I was able to pick up right where I left off. I also found out that the job I had been looking forward to before I left is still mine (at this point … all things are subject to change in the ‘Navy of One’). All this made today’s classes somewhat enjoyable (even though I’d had this day of instruction before).
In what shouldn’t be a surprise to me at this point in my career; even though you change the personnel, the antics remain the same. I just watched two of my tentmates participate in the time honored ritual of the poor man’s haircut. Mind you, haircuts here in the desert run a mind-numbing three dollars. These two decided to do it the old fashioned way. Unfortunately, shortly after this photo was taken, the two were overtaken by clouds of white smoke. Apparently, they forgot that small appliances designed to work in America don’t do as well when used in 220 volt foreign outlets. Once again, I’m home. Until tomorrow.
-Grease out.
1 comment:
Welcome tou our class. Check out my BLOG (http://todaysnarmy.blogspot.com)
OB
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