B. is officially enlisted in the United States Army. The particulars as I know them include him shipping out for basic training (likely at Fort Benning Georgia) on January 2, 2013. He will possibly do another semester of classes and continue his SaveMart job until sometime in late November/early December.
I am proud of him for sticking with his dreams and goals. And glad it's official.
And then there's that feeling in the pit of my stomach that says 'your son just agreed to be paid around $10 an hour to risk his life for our country'. And I want to throw up.
But I won't. This may be one of the hardest parts of parenting - when all the talk of 'letting them go' and 'it's their dream, not yours' - really has to be 'real'. All true....but when the reality is he will be shipping out to a place he's never been and then shipping out again to some foreign country (possibly) to walk around armed and watchful on behalf of our country, it's a little different.
Like the news regarding J.'s employment (and yesterday there was a huge issue on BART and I texted J. to say 'isn't it cool to know that one week from now, you won't give a rat's patootie about BART alerts' and he promptly replied 'Yes!'), I am taking the news of B.'s enlistment somewhat stoically. Happy for him. Proud of him. And a little dazed and shocked about it all.
$10 an hour.....
On a good note he did get a higher pay grade because of all his college classes - so that at least (finally) translated into something he can 'see' that makes education worth the expense and effort.
I slept through my alarm for over 40 minutes so I am officially already behind for the day. I was working into the late evening here at home (after working a 12 hour day in my office) and commiserating with other CBO friends as they did the same - and we are all mind-boggling exhausted. So I'm in good company.
My boss agreed that two of my planned Power Points for our board meeting probably won't add anything so thank goodness for that. Still crafting the one 'must-do' Power Point....
Time to get moving. Thankfully, after a long day today, I will be taking the first weekend I've had off in a really long time...
Tales of Helpers
Our cleaning lady D. is here today - she wears earbuds and chats on the phone while she works. She is the third cleaning 'person(s)'...
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If it helps, he'll get three square meals a day, free housing, clothes, free gym, free medical and dental, plus almost double his salary over three years in GI bill education benefits. And 30 days vacation a year.
On a more sober note, they asked him where they should send his remains.
J
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