What I miss and how it has changed me

Being away from home and from your known suroundings definately throws a person off.  You are no longer able to walk down the street to the grocery store or head into walmart, you can't go camping in the woods with your friends or do any number of things.  And I am ok with that.  I volunteered to give that up,

What I miss are more simple things;

I miss my family.  My family is going through an extremely exciting time right now as we look forward to the birth of the first grand baby into our family.  I am supper excited for my sister and her husband and cannot wait to meet the little guy.

I miss my electric toothbrush.  I'm not really sure what changed, if it is the food, the environment or the voice of my mother in the back of my head, but I have become obsessed with brushing and flossing my teeth,  It seems as though I can't keep my mouth clean enough. 

I miss my close friends, and the ability to call them up and go visit and hang out when I needed someone to be with.  I got lucky when I got here and was quickly able to pick out my Afghanistan Best friend, Ty, he quickly became my shortkick and we really enjoy hanging out togehter.  I feel lucky to have him in my life as a friend and confidant, However, I miss my old friends too, and communiation is hard with a crazy time different among other things.

I miss the ability to get into my car and just go somewhere, here I walk everywhere I need to go, and if its on base then you can go anywhere, your just very limited on where that is.

I think that one of the biggest things I miss is privacy.  Privacy is at a premium.  Even in my room there is no true privacy as my roommate can hear everything I do, and everywhere you go there are people, sometimes I just crave solitude, and a little time to regroup and regenerate.  I always liked my alone time, but never realized before now just how necessary it truly was.

Missing those things are difficult, but I still feel that the job I am doing qne the experience I am getting more then make up for what I am missing.  Here I found a new family, the people I work with are crazy and great and I have come to love them.  My boss immediately took me under his wing to look after as a daughter, I have recently dubbed him Daddy Warbucks.  My Canadian Baba Rob has grown on me imensely and I am already sad at the idea of him leaving in a few months.  My other co-workers all have their unique quirks and good personalities that make working with them so much fun.  There is not a day that goes buy that we do not laugh until there are tears pouring out from laughing so hard.  It's what happens when you put a bunch of crazy old men togehter in one room...

What has Changed me

I think the biggest thing for me is self confidence in my abiliteis and my skills and my future.  I also have a better sense of myself.  The confidence has allowed me more freedom to explore different areas of myself and be able to search those areas and determine the true me.  A time of reflection was good.  Now I need the strengh to stand behind those lessons learned and do what is best for me.  And it will...it may just take time like anything else.