So I’ve done it.  I took the leap and I stuck through it.  I joined the one and only Marines.

Crazy, right?  I began training several months back (remember when I wasn’t posting much?) and it was quite gruesome.  It’s been hard for me to talk about these plans, and I won’t discuss much of it today.  I didn’t even want to mention it during Lent, but now that Easter is over I feel that this is the right time to release some information.  I traveled quite far for the training and met some very amazing people.  I am so proud of them, and myself, for taking a stand and fighting for our country.

I very recently was able to wear my uniform for the first time, and it was very surreal to say the least.  I am incredibly nervous about the transition and this new type of life I will be living.  But I am a proud American, and when the opportunity came to me, it felt like this was the right choice to end all of my current silly struggles.

I have found out where I will first be deployed and I’m pretty nervous about it…

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I have learned so much in the past few years.  Between travels and new homes and meeting new people, my mind has been opened to new things and new perspectives.  Today is one of the greatest days of the year for Christians.  As someone who was born and raised Catholic, and I have grown to have a more abundant love for Jesus, today is the day that we join together as a family and celebrate the fact that Jesus had died but has now rose again.  My faith has its ups and downs, and it can be really hard to get me to go to mass sometimes, but I am so happy that I have God and Jesus and Mary to count on throughout everything.

I don’t want to say that I grew up “sheltered,” but I sort of did.  I had a recent conversation with my sister (who is 19 months younger than me) and she told me that that’s how she felt.  I feel that I grew up protected, but I also feel that I was aware of the world, the good and the evil in it, at a young age.  It could very well be from the fact that I loveddd to read, which can really open your eyes to other feeling’s and emotions, as well as emotional issues.  Or it could be from spending so much time in the hospital when I was little, which in and of itself is not a happy place, and is filled with people dealing with all sorts of struggles.

Needless to say, when I moved to Chicago after graduating highschool in 2006, I was not at all surprised or shocked at all of the cultural changes there versus Ohio.  I was actually more shocked when I would find that a friend was Christian, as it was a pretty safe assumption to assume they did not believe in God.  (I should mention that I went to a very liberal arts college.)  I never minded or cared (and still don’t) that a lot of my friends believe different than me.  It was great to listen to other’s sides, though I never appreciated hearing them put God down or say negative things about what I believe, as I never did that to them.  It was not a challenge for me to accept my friends or the people around me for who they were.

And do you know who taught me that?  To love others as they are?

Jesus.

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