Oh How He Has Changed

I am very happy today to have the writings of a wonderful young lady whose statuses on Facebook has often prompted me to write a blog post or two. This story is in several parts. So make sure to tune in everyday to see how it unfolds.

Spending time with Blake during our “long” weekend with him was interesting, to say the least. He wasn’t the same person he was when he left us just eight and a half weeks prior. He walked straighter, looked us in the eyes when speaking to us, was overly polite to everybody that spoke to him, and he even found himself correcting our father, who is about to retire from the Air Force as a Master Sargent. It didn’t take long for Blake to mention that Dad was due for a haircut soon and he was constantly making sure Dad was wearing his seat belt. Every once in a while, we would catch a glimpse of our old Blake: he’d make a comment about our hometown, joke with me about my on-and-off-again love life, and talk about how he was ready to grow his precious hair out again. He was extra quiet, though, and very observant. Blake had this straight face he’d wear at all times and there was no telling what he was thinking. We didn’t know if we should expect a small joke to come out of his lips or a serious statement about his time at Basic Training. As much as we loved his presence, we didn’t know what to exactly expect out of it.

            Blake, and honestly the rest of the family as well, got a kick with how friendly the people of San Antonio, Texas were. Our nation isn’t kidding when we say that San Antonio is Military City, USA. Everywhere we went, Blake was obligated to wear his uniform, so it wasn’t a secret that he was a new airman. He was congratulated so often, I personally lost track of how many people spoke to him. We had strangers speaking up as we passed them on the river walk as well as fellow airmen rolling down their windows on base to tell him congratulations on passing (or, well, making it through) Basic Training. When Blake would pass by other recent graduates, they usually just gave each other a nod and kept going on with their business. He said that they all understood each other now, and that’s all that they really needed to know.

            I’m the goody-two-shoes of the family and Blake is, well, the rebellious one. During his last months at home, he snuck out countless times and did what other typical eighteen year-old boys did. Saturday was when I realized just how much Basic Training had changed my brother’s way of thinking. Blake was technically allowed to stay out past curfew because we went to Sea World that day (they had to return as soon as possible once the park closed, though). We went for most of the day and then decided to leave and go to the movie theater and then return to Sea World. However, Blake was paranoid and didn’t want to go back to the theme park. He insisted that we take him back to his dorm so he could make his original curfew. While we knew that he would have gotten away with going back to the theme park, he didn’t want to risk potentially getting into trouble, which is quite unlike the Blake I knew just eight and a half weeks before.

            There were other instances that portrayed his time at Basic Training had indeed changed him. For instance, Blake was extra nice and patient with Charlie, our five year-old brother. Before Blake left, he rarely ever showed Charlie the time of day, and now he is extra nice and makes an effort with our youngest sibling. Blake has never cared much for large crowds, but lunch time at Sea World showed a side of my brother that I had never seen before. He was extra nervous and he looked like he was going to be sick in the overly-crowded room. Whenever our family would bicker amongst ourselves, he would become serious and ask us to stop fighting. He also became rather testy whenever I’d raise my voice at Charlie, which was odd to me since he used to be the one that would yell at him. Before going to Basic Training, Blake didn’t want to hear advice from Dad, but it seemed like he couldn’t get enough of it during our weekend reunion with him. The main difference that I noticed was that Blake made an effort to continuously remind us all how much we were missed and how much he appreciated us writing to him while he was away. For a brother that was never the sentimental type with me, I had a hard time trying to get used to this new way of life for him.

Tune into tomorrow to see read how this story continues to unfold.

Brooke is a wonderful and intelligent young lady who is entering her junior in college. She is the oldest of 4 children  and is very involved in the local community. I am very pleased that she offered to write for me while I am recovering from surgery. Hope you enjoy her writing as much as I have had.

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