I have less than a month left before I board a plane and head back over for round two. The closeness of the deployment is starting to hit me more frequently. My feelings about deploying are different this time than they were last time. Last time I was purely excited and couldn’t wait to go. The only ideas of what it would be like over there were things my imagination could come up with, and the majority of my preconceived notions were wrong. This time, however, I have my past experience clouding my vision of the future for both the good and bad.
Part of me is still looking forward to being over there largely because I feel like I am slacking off somehow by being back in the states when I have friends and classmates who are deployed. I am also looking forward to getting away from Fort Hood and garrison life. The past year was entirely focused on training and getting ready to deploy after having just gotten back from the first deployment. The optempo was quite fast and a lot was asked of the soldiers in terms of time and training. I’d rather be in Iraq than stuck at Fort Hood training for Iraq.
As the deployment draws nearer I’m finding myself looking around and trying to take in the things I normally take for granted, such as the ability to drive my car down the road, sleep in late on the weekends and be lazy if I want, wear regular clothes and my hair down, have a bathroom and shower a few feet away from where I sleep that doesn’t require me going outside to reach, and so many other things.
From what I’ve heard recently, Iraq is much quieter than when I was there last time. Most likely, the worst things I will have to deal with are trying to overcome the groundhog effect of the days as well as making sure that I don’t get fat from all of the food at the dining facility. I don’t know what life will be like this time around, but if it’s anything like last time than I can’t complain about a lack of creature comforts.
No comments:
Post a Comment