by Derek Farwell
Columnist

I remember when I was just a young tot and my perception of the world was based on my own very limited life experiences. When I think back on being younger, the more I realize how much of a person’s personality is actually adopted from the people around you most of the time as well as the place you grow up in. I grew up in a small country town where the majority of the town knew everyone and for the most part were friendly to each other. I came from an upper middle class family so things were always pretty good. So, I always just assumed that most people had a similar life and opportunities that I had, which I later found to be very far from the truth. Life in the Army exposed me to a wide variety of people from way different backgrounds. Some of my best friends come from extremely different backgrounds, and being deployed to a combat zone exposed me to the reality that not all places are like the small town where I grew up.

Now that I am a little older, and I’d like to think I’m wiser though some may disagree, I realize how lucky I am to be where I am from and raised the way I was. I’m 28 years old and I think that I’ve already had a lifetime of experiences. Some good, some bad, but throughout everything, I have come to realize that I have a lot to be thankful for. When I was a high school kid I think that I took a lot of things for granted that many other people just plain don’t have, but I think that is pretty common place for teenagers and kids. My time in the Army and my travels in general have all taught me one incontrovertible fact, and that is things can always be worse, and I should be very thankful for being where I am today. When I was a teenager I was cocked and ready to get out of my parents’ house and go out into the world by the time I was 16. In no way, shape, or form did I possess the maturity or knowledge to go out on my own, but that is a separate issue all together.

When I joined the Army I was pretty clueless when it came to interacting with people that weren’t like the small town country people that I had grown up with, but it was really good for me. I think a military base is the only place where you’ll find people of such differing backgrounds and stories hanging out together. When I met people in the military it was always during work when everyone is wearing the uniform and doing military training which bonds people and forms close relationships only to find out that when you’re off duty your friend might dress like Prince from 1985.

I also learned how incredibly lucky I am to have been born where I was and presented the opportunities that I have had during my relatively ‘young’ life. I remember being told many times as a kid that I should be thankful for what I have and I thought that I was, but I didn’t realize the true scope of that statement until I was in the Army, even more so when I went to Iraq. I could have just as easily been born an innocent little Muslim boy in Baghdad as opposed to what and where I am, and lived a life of chaos and living under constant threat of violence and uncertainty. As I’ve stated before, there are many millions of good people in Iraq, but the land in which they live is plagued with violence and an utter lack of stability. Often times, good and honest people are driven to bad or evil deeds by the circumstances in which they are placed. I consider myself to be a moral person, and I always try to do what I perceive as being the right thing, but I’m not naïve enough to think that if I lived in a situation like that that I’d be too proud to bend my morals to take care of the people I love. If I were faced with the choice of watching my family starve or stealing food I doubt I would be able to take the high road, and I would have a hard time believing anyone who would say otherwise.

I think I’m very fortunate to be where I am today, and to know what I know. I most definitely consider myself lucky to be alive as too many of my friends no longer are. But in all of my travels and all of my experiences I’ve come to the conclusion that home isn’t such a bad place to. While I couldn’t wait to get out of my home as a kid, the longer you are gone the more you realize that you want to go home.

drfarwell@hotmail.com