Drill Team and Color Guard

Did you know that you can request a transcript from your high school? For two dollars, my high school's County School District sent me a cheap reminder of 1996-2000. I take for granted that I can still log into my Route Y account and see my transcript easily. I can do the same for my graduate school grades. It's fun seeing the grades, sometimes, but it's more fun seeing the class titles. At BYU, I had 191.5 hrs earned. There were a lot fun classes. From my high school transcript, I remembered that I had done AFJROTC for two years. I even did a summer school session.

The ROTC class reminded me of the two years I was on the color guard and drill team for ROTC. It was fun. I was issued a blue uniform, learned and memorized things that I can't remember anymore, including calculating how far off course my plane would be due to wind on a map, earned rank and ribbons. I was really good, at least that's how the Colonel made me feel. From my hindsight perspective, I remember that I really enjoyed presenting the colors (flags) at assemblies and sports events. Even enjoyed the marching around and competition for the drill team, somehow feeling cool because I knew how to properly heft a rifle and march around with it.

I tried to tell Katie about some AFJROTC experiences. She was not in the least bit interested in them. She laughed a bit, thought I was throwing flags around and pink rifles like the girls that tramp around with the Band kids. I tried to tell her.

It is interesting how some things that we find interesting do not have the same affect (I chose this one not the E-ther one) on others. It's possible since we're the ones that have the experience and no matter how closely we relate our experience, it'll never be the same unless someone else has had something very closely similar to what we are transmitting. Unique is difficult to accomplish, yet we often feel our experiences are. How many people have ever lived? That's a lot.

I finished the certificate program at GA-PCOM in Biomedical Science. I will not go onto the second year to get the MS degree since I was accepted into the DO program for the class of 2013. Katie and I are ecstatic to say the least.

We left Florida and a relatively comfortable life specifically to attend the GA-PCOM biomedical science master's program in hopes of successfully being admitted to a DO program for the class of 2013. I am grateful that everything worked out so wonderfully. I learned a lot of information this year that will serve me well in medical school come August. Teaching at Mater I used to tell the kids that they could make a plan to go after their dreams. I told them that they could plan and put themselves into positions that would get them where they wanted to go in life. I decided that I should do the same, and I'm lucky to have such a supportive wife. She literally supported our family this past year.

I don't know if anybody reads this blog, but just in case you didn't know, Katie and I are having a little girl come the end of July. I feel her when I touch Katie's belly kick and writhe around inside. I'm anxious to meet her. [Special thanks goes to Courtney and Avery Anderton for their role in influencing Katie to have our girl.]

After church today, I decided to bust out my little used guitar. I bought it while I was in college so a friend of mine Steven Melonakos, a soon to be UNC dental school graduate, could teach me (some chords) to play. It was fun. It's been so long that I can't really hold the (left hand) notes correctly, but maybe this summer--by the end--I'll be able to play a part of a song.

While rooting around in the guitar case I found this scratched on the back of a piece of paper, from before I was married:

I'm sitting here, alone, with friends
Waiting
So slip beside me and hold me tight

Spectacular and talented
Though you can't tell tonight
I'm walking down the hall.
Hope I don't see you today. No I don't.