Every day I read something the internet/paper/report on the situation in the Middle East. They are not always about the war but, as you may have guessed, a lot of reporting that comes out of there centers on this war. Every day I read about people dying or lives being destroyed for “a lost cause” as most call it. Every day I go into class and listen to gossip and who’s dating who and every other bullshit thing that college kid’s talk about. Every day another one of my peers die in Iraq. Every day I know I should be there with them.
I’m a big guy. Not as tall as I’d like but hey, who is? Up until high school I was a big guy who was also a talented baseball player. As some of you may have guessed baseball isn’t the kind of games where big guys go very far, unless you can throw the ball 100 mph which I can’t. But baseball kept me in better shape than say play station would have, so by high school I was a big guy with some foot speed. Any of you sports fans can probably guess where I am going with this…football.
In high school that is what I did, played football and played it pretty well. And something happened that can honestly only happen in football, I fell in love with my teammates. Anyone who wants to argue this fact is welcome to try, but there is no sport that instills “the team” as much as football does. And no level is better at producing this outcome than high school. In the pros guys are worried about making money; in college guys are worried about how to make it to the pros. In high school, you just play for love. Love of the game and love for the people around you.
There is truly only one other place where you can form this kind of bond with the men around you, and that is the military. The military is where I thought about going. I got in to three or four colleges but I really had no interest in going. I wanted to serve my country and I wanted to do it along side men I would die for. I would have died for anyone on my football team.
So senior year a few scouts talked to me but those are the ones that talk to everybody, I am not a college level football player. But I had made up my mind to be honest. No college could offer what I was looking for, brotherhood.
Football, like the military, also comes with its risks. My risk came on a cold October night in the form of a defender diving at my knee cap. Long story short, his body killed my knee, and all the tendons/ligaments inside of it. And in half a second, two of my dreams died. After surgery I was done for the season and as a senior, my last season. And after rehab I found I couldn’t run for more than a mile without extreme pain. So much for the military.
I watched as my football team evaporated after the season, some going to play college ball, some dropping out and some, joining the armed forces. I watched them all go and have already had the misfortune of seeing a few come home in flag-draped caskets.
Those were my brothers. My team. I would have died for them and they for me. We never had to talk about it, we just knew, the feeling was simply there. My brothers are still enlisting and being shipped out. And I watch as my family leaves to serve their country and to die for their country. I watch when I should be walking with them. Fighting with them. Dying with them.
So as you listen to the news reports about how Bush and Congress are ruining America. How the government is falling down around us. How the liberals and conservatives are tearing America apart. Remember that it is my brothers’ blood that is paying the price. Remember that it is my brothers’ tenacity and integrity that allows us to go to school. And go to work. And play with our friends, family, sons and daughters. Remember them.
I only wish I had not been leftbehind.
For my brothers.
Have a nice day
T
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It's for that reason that I support the troops. They're doing what they feel is right, and what they do, they're willing to die for. It's that that I support.
I don't support the war, or Bush's decisions regarding it, but there's a lot of respect to be had for the ones that are willing to actually go over there and risk their lives.