Greetings infrequent readers and Blogspot browsers,
The New Year has come and gone and, however much I despise resolutions of any sort, it is time to take a look at the previous year and has out some goals for the next.
The year started out under the dark cloud of Army Basic Training. On leave during what the Army like to call "Christmas Exodus", I had returned to Milwaukee from Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri for Christmas for 10 days. The break was needed if not entirely well deserved. Basic had taken much out of me, and I was very grateful for the break. After the New Year's festivities, I returned to Ft. Leonard Wood to complete Basic and AIT. The experience was unbelievable. I learned much about the human condition, along with the strength and weakness inside my own heart. I would not trade the experience for the world.
I returned home to Milwaukee in March, where my girlfriend met me at General Mitchell Airport. From there, life returned to normalcy. I had been admitted to the graduate program for History at UW-Milwaukee during AIT, so the summer was devoted to working and saving. I worked for a small start up painting company, Culver's Painting, for the summer, putting in long hours most days. The owner, Josh Culver, a graduate of Edgewood College, was only 2 years my senior, and his youthful exuberance for making money matched his employee's. With a long duty assignment this summer, 3 weeks in June, I was able to save considerably for the coming year while staying at my old roomate's apartment in Madison. Living and working in Madison allowed me to spend much of my summer with Lynn.
The summer soon became fall, and school replaced the long days of painting. The course load was daunting to say the least, with 12 hour days that included ROTC training in the morning and classroom and library study at night. My social life suffered greatly, to say the least. The work was well done, however, and when the semester was completed I had earned the best marks in school then ever before. My final projects went much better than expected, and while I was certainly a bear to those around me for a couple weeks, 3 all-nighters netted me very quality remarks on my work. While the balance of ROTC wih graduate school was difficult at times, the semester ended and I was able to look back with sastifaction.
The winter break is a welcome relief from the trials of school. I recently went to the Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, California. Wisconsin played Texas Christian Universtiy. I went with my good friends from my undergrad and Madison: AJ, Devon, Mark, Jordan and Matt. There, we met up with Lynn's roomate and another friend from school, and celebrated New Years and the game. Coming home is not much of a let-down, however, because soon I will be skiing with Lynn and Shannon in Utah, though that might have to wait until next year. I will soon post pictures from the last year onto a photo sharing site. I will post when I have accomplished this. The next post will discuss plans for the future.
Peace Brothers and Sisters.
