Over the weekend I was told some very surprising big news. It was something I was not expecting to hear. I was casually driving my dad’s Mini Cooper when he tells me that he is leaving for Afghanistan for almost a year. The worst of it is that he is leaving next month for Afghanistan. I just now get this news a month before he has to leave. It is very sudden. We do not know a date, just that it is next month. It was surprising to his girlfriend, my sister, my nieces, and myself.

I come from a military family. On my mother’s side of the family, her stepfather was in the army when he was younger. My mother’s oldest brother was in the Marines for a while too. On my dad’s side of the family, his dad was in the army. My late Uncle George was also military, he was a Marine. He won many awards and has four Purple Hearts. As my brothers were growing up they had their own little dreams of joining the military when they are older. They have completed those dreams. My brother JR joined the Navy when he was seventeen years old. My other brother Matthew joined the army when he was eighteen years old. He wanted to become what my dad is, an MP (Military police). I too have a slight desire to join the military just like my dad and my older brothers.

The last time I remember  my dad leaving to go overseas was about twelve years ago. I remember being five years old and in kindergarten. Him leaving for Iraq took a toll on me. Being five and having for dad leave for Iraq for a year is a hard thing to go through. I remember the nights where I would sit in my mom’s lap in her bedroom and I would bawl my eyes out because I missed my dad so much. The day he came back from Iraq was one of the happiest days of my life. Him leaving for Afghanistan for a year is going to take a toll on me just like it did twelve years ago when he left for Iraq. This time I know how to cope with it though, since we have been through him leaving to go overseas.