Always Hurrying Just to Wait

“The worst memories are the best memories.”

He wasn’t talking about cancer or his dog dying. Just the suck of military life. Basic training. Some deployment to some random place to fight some random war for some random reason.

The worst memories.

A drill sergeant yelling in your face at 2 a.m. Nervous laughter getting off the plane and feeling the desert heat rising off the tarmac. Not knowing when the deployment will end. Eating beef stroganoff MREs while waiting for hours. Always hurrying just to wait.

Those are the worst memories.

I won’t pretend I faced combat. I’m not that guy. No one wants to be that guy. I flew a desk as an accountant in the Air Force. My Uber passenger is special operations guy. He's that guy.

But I was young once.

I hated those times. And now, somehow, I’d give anything to go back and relive them one more time.