HURRY UP and WAIT!!!!!!

Thats what we live by...I was first introduced to this style of living...well, hmmmm probably the day Sev graduated from Basic training.
He and I had become good friends a few months prior to his enlisting in the Army. He was seeing one of my good friends and therefore we managed to spend time with each other before we even knew there was chemistry between us!! I kid him b/c I actually delivered flowers to my friend, his girlfriend at the time, for him...I loved his sense of humor and his sweet smile...but I was on my own path, man! I was headed for WU and the life of a carefree, college student majoring in Art (not to mention I was dating someone) :) Then I got the news that Sevs bestfriend had been killed in a car accident. I called him to see if he was okay and ask if he needed anything. He asked me to attend the funeral with him. It was then that our lives began to change...thinking back now...I dont think either of us realized what was about to happen.
A few weeks later I got a call from Sev saying he had enlisted in the Army and would be shipping off to Basic Training in May.
We met up at a going away party for him and promised to keep in touch...thinking back....we were young (still are), had no idea what life held for us and what exactly we were suppose to do with the world at our feet...looking at pictures he looked so little (not the man I know today)...he was that good ole' country boy that was up for anything and any dare anyone put him up to, he had a constant smile on his face and worked hard for the weekends, hehe. I was learning my limits and testing my boundaries and preparing (as my dad puts it) to jump from the nest and spread my wings!! hehe (gotta love dads analogies!!) I wanted a degree and the whole college experience.
So sev left and I started the Summer of 2003. Half way through his training I finally kept my promise and wrote him a letter...good grief, did that open up a flood gate.....I think I received a letter from him every other day, and a call every sunday when he was allowed minutes for phone calls. We were honestly living in our own little love story (but didnt know it at the time). He would write about training days, the heat, and the crappy food. I would write about swimming in the summer sun, fights with my current boyfriend, rumors and gossip from our small town. I had no clue what the military life was about...and I didnt think much of it, looking back...I realize how naive I was and how naive America is (No offensive, my husband is proudly fighting a war to keep America in our bubble...safe and sound...so that they will never see the things he has.)
Sooo on August 1st 2003 I made a trip to Ft. Benning GA to watch SPC. Mullen graduate from Infantry School.



We arrived at the field they had set up for the Units Graduation. It was humid, I had forgotten my sunglasses and it was sprinkling on and off. I met Sevs parents and sat on the sticky bleachers waiting on a sea of green uniforms to march in front of us...blurring together and hard to tell where one soldier ended and another began. Then before we knew it the green men were scattering out and we were allowed to leave our positions on the bleachers and find our Infantryman. Yeah....right....we waited for Sev to find us!!
He did...pictures were taken...congratulations were given...and before we knew it some guy was screaming (very loudly and what I thought unnecessarily) for the men to return to formation!! We were commanded to move off the field and Wait for our Soldiers....so Wait we did....we Hurried off the field...and waited............and waited.............and waited..............we waited 8 hrs!!! We finally left Ft. Benning GA just before midnight on Aug. 1st. I spent my 20th Birthday in a car with Sev singing me Happy Birthday.....WAY off key!!



And that was the day I was first introduced to the phrase: "HURRY UP and WAIT!!"

I'll add more later...I think our story should be recorded...so here is the beginning to our whirlwind story.