Reflections of a Year (from my workstation on a slow day)

This year has flown by. I think everyone I have spoken to has said something similar. It seems the end of the year always creeps up on you, like you never have enough time to finish all you set out to accomplish that year. But reflecting back, I realize this year has been yet another year of great transition, opportunity, and hope, and see just how far I, and as of 21 August "we", have come.

Last year at this time, I was sitting at Al Rasheed two miles south of Sadr City on the outskirts of downtown Baghdad, with the putrid smell of the Diyala River to keep me awake when the coffee wouldn't. My New Year's meal was nothing special (I'm alive at least), and no football games were shown because our satellite was down and the Iraqi stations don't show American football. I'm pretty sure I talked to my new fiancee, Lyndsey, that day on the phone (the wedding seemed light years away) before going off to inhale room fulls of toxic second hand smoke from cheap cigarettes and guzzle more cups of that loathsome Iraqi sugar chai. We were planning a large operation that at the time was still a big secret (both to the people in Iraq and my family and friends at home), since the elections were less than three months away, where we would be gone for about 2 weeks and search countless homes for bombs and weapons, arrest dozens of very bad people, and take those perilous roads yet again on high alert to and from various places as we "advised and assisted" our Iraqi, ahem, friends with securing their own country.

Fast forward 365. I'm home now (or at work at the moment), completely safe, surrounded by luxury that living in this country brings. I am blessed to be a married man now, and have all the things that go along with it that I couldn't have pictured at this time last year, including a pile of "things" to go through, 2 weeks of leftovers in the fridge, "Dear John" in my Netflix queue, and the guarantee that at some point tonight my body will be used as a foot/hand warmer for someone with perpetually cold extremities. We're lucky enough to both have jobs and not have need for anything. We're surrounded by wonderful family and friends that support us in all that we do. We live in a great place with something interesting always going on. We're young and free to do what we want. My job is non-deploying, and I have a lax work schedule compared to this time last year. All in all, life is pretty good.

Fast forward 365. I'm out of the Army, and have accepted a position with a company somewhere in Texas. Lyndsey and I have moved back to Texas where we live in a great place with a little one (we don't know if it will be a boy or a girl, just that it will change our lives completely, be four legged, covered in hair, and allowed by our apartment after the pet deposit; what did you think I was talking about?!). Lyndsey is practicing law at a small non-profit firm that mainly helps immigrants and those less fortunate. We have just returned from visiting friends and family for the Holidays, and are now preparing for our grown-up style New Year's party, complete with hors d'oeuvres and champagne flutes (start finding babysitters now. It's going to be off the hook, with Rock Band, board games, the works!). We went on an awesome trip to celebrate our one year anniversary, and wonder how we got so lucky in this thing called life....

As we start next year, we're filled with hope, both the hope that came in Christ during Christmas last week, and the hope of a new chapter and fresh start this week. Lyndsey and I have no doubt that this year will be better than last, and wish everyone the best in whatever endeavors you begin. Cheers!

"It's difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." - Robert Goddard

New Year's dinnner 2010 at the Al Rasheed Dining Facility

New Year's 2011 at Rustico in DC

New Year's 2012 at the Markos' Gala!