It’s Monday morning of Week 8 and there I stand, all 5’4” of me in front of a class of 40. My arms are stiff at my sides as Sergeant stops in front of me, all I can see is the middle of his chest. “Any issues?” he asks me. Issues? I think, forgetting everything everyone has told me in the last 5 minutes. (he has this skill of resetting my “oodaloop” like nobodies business.)
This was how Monday started for me but if there is one thing I’ve learned so far it was to let things roll off your back. Our weekly theme for the week was “shower well“, which, understandably caused a few chuckles from some of my teammates. We all knew we could smell pretty bad after our PT sessions but to name a theme after it? Luckily for us this wasn’t the case, “shower well” simply meant to let the unfavorable things that happened to us, roll of our backs so we could start the days, the hours, the minutes with fresh starts.
Keeping this theme in mind, I told myself every morning that the day was fresh. That my team needed me to come in without the baggage of life so I could help lift them any means possible. We are a team after all, one giant family of blue that learns together, shoots together, works out together and most importantly puts each other in twist-locks until the muscles in our forearms throb and ache (for you folks at home, that was sarcasm).
All kidding aside, we had a rough week ahead of us. Tuesday and Thursday we had dim light shooting that lasted until 2200 hours, with early mornings Wednesday and Friday. Though shooting is fun, it was obvious that patience was wearing thin towards the end. People had families to go home to and dogs to feed but everyone did the best they could. I know that I personally, wanted nothing more than a bone crushing hug from my goofy, loveable and understanding husband.
If there is one thing I want to share with my team, it’s that he is the only reason I haven’t gone completely mental because, let’s face it, I’m 20% there and I hope every night that every single person in my class has someone to get that hug from. Without him, there would be no one to split the nightly duties of ironing, shining boots and gun cleaning. No one to cry to or laugh with. Don’t get me wrong, we have our moments where we argue but we’ve managed to find that middle ground where we understand that we CAN’T understand the stress of each other’s life and it’s not worth trying to one up each other. Instead we goof off, say ridiculous things to each other and occasionally sneak up on each other and see how it turns out.
That being said, I could have more to complain about to my husband but instead I find myself telling him about how proud I am of my team mates and how lucky I am that they give 100%. It was an honor being Class Leader and I can’t wait to see my brothers and sisters in blue out on the streets. And remember; “and maybe remind the few, if ill of us they speak, that we are all that stands between the monsters and the weak.”
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