"If we were logical, the future would be bleak indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope." ~ J

Done, just fucking done. I do not have to pretend to like people I work with, I can tell them if I think they are full of crap, I don’t have to play the game any longer.

I am getting ready to hop on the red-eye tonight bound for the mainland. They did not have an upgrade option online, but I will ask the ticket lady and if its under 100$ I will pay for the upgrade. Free beer all the way back to the mainland. Free and or cost 100$ depends on how you look at it. I have found this new joy of drinking beer on the plane. I don’t know where it started, but they had Heineken for 5$ and I was like “Engh, might as well try it out” well, let me tell you, its fantastic to drink a beer and know that you are flying around at 518 miles per hour. Its like you are being carried somewhere, but more perhaps because I have such a strong aversion to drinking and driving, this touches that and it is scandalous.

Overall, I have not enjoyed this last rotation, but looking back over the year+ that I have been out wondering the desert of life, this experience has been AMAZING! I met some of the most amazing and loving people that I ever have, I got to see places that I never dreamed of going to. I have seen and engaged people in their pain and in the struggle of living life. This little stretch of time this summer will be the longest block of time that I have continually been at one place for more then a matter of weeks.

I found out today that I ship out for the Navy on 11 September. I will take the board exam on the 28th of Aug two weeks after that I will be in Rhode Island for 5 weeks, then off to Guam.

It is coming at me fast and strong now. Life. Can you taste it? It smells of freedom and adventure. Of being on an island in the south pacific, of being a plane ride away from Fiji, Wake island, Palau, New Zealand, Australia, and Thailand. The world is in front of me. It is unwrapping itself like an orange. Not one of those with the thin skin, but the ones that have a good ¼ inch of peel that you can just rip away. I am a kid in a candy store and am very excited to see where the wind will take me.

Fair winds and following seas my friends. I will see many of you soon.

M@