Delete Delete Delete

Do you receive junk emails? If you are old enough to have an email address (approximately 1.5 days old and above), your inbox is more than likely invaded with messages you delete upon arrival.

At first, all the junk emails I got were in the form of questions:
Are you looking for love?
Have you looked at your credit score lately?
Are you interested in investing?
Looking to shed 5-100 pounds?
Is your refrigerator running?

I must admit, when I first started receiving these emails, I genuinely thought they needed an answer. I would reply saying, "Thank you for thinking of me! I'm not interested right now, but I appreciate your consideration! Sincerely, Anna Jones".
The senders rewarded my kindness by sending my the same emails again.
And again.
And again.

A few round of this and my response was a little more direct. "I can only assume that you didn't receive my first eleven emails I sent because I am NOT interested in you offer at this time, or ever. Please forward this message to everyone you work with, everyone you are related to, and everyone you've ever made eye contact with. Seriously, Anna Jones".

Then the emails got pushy:
Save the whales and cell phone minutes now!
Respond immediately to avoid coupon expiration!!
Hurry! Claim your new Dell laptop!!!!!
Well, then you'd better go catch it!!!!!!!!!!

With each email, the line of exclamation points got longer and longer, until one day, I was sent a message where the entire subject line was a row of them! you can be sure i opened it right away - I don't know what would happen to our economy if I didn't respond immediately to "Nancy" in the Stimulus Department to let her know whether or not I wanted to take advantage of Obama's "Mom's Back To School" program.

Before I close, I want to let you know that with all this junk mail coming into my inbox, I sometimes accidentally delete legitimate messages from people I have actually met. Keep this in mind so that if I ever don't respond to your email, realize that it's either because it's in my recycle bin or because I've ignored it on purpose :)

Matt's Ceremony: Fort Benning

I'd been sitting on the front row of the bleachers for a while, just letting my eyes pace the area for me. I had arrived on base entirely too early, but it'd been 14 weeks since I had last seen Matt and I was going crazy just waiting at the hotel.

I had time to think, so I did.

I remembered when Matt told me he enlisted. Nothing against the military, but I didn't want him to move away. I'd never really had to be without him before, and I had no desire to find out what it was like.

I think sometimes we take family for granted. While we all have friends that we've lost touch with, family never forgets that you belong with them. No matter what happens, your sister still still knows you're her brother, your dad still calls you son. You might get a new best friend while an older one drops down the charts, but your mom never loses rank. She's still mom, and you're still the kid. If you're eating at her house, she still gets to tell you to wash up for dinner. Regardless of how mad you were at your sister last year when she wrecked your car, she's still family. You'll still ask her what she thinks about your new girlfriend.

If you think about it, your siblings are your best friends. In society these days, if you're not funny, don't have the new phone or laptop, or don't have interesting stories to tell, you won't get much attention. As a kid, you didn't have any new stories to tell your siblings because they lived with you! There were no jokes they hadn't heard you tell a million times already, no new toys you hadn't already shared with them, and no talent they didn't already know you had. that young, you had no money to impress them, and no chance to give them a false impression of who you really were. All the things that seem essential to being accepted now, you had no idea to even try it back then....
Funny how every morning in the summer, your brother would still wake you up so you could help him build that fort in the woods.

With your best friend, even if you've been apart for a while, as soon as you see each other, or talk on the phone, you're right back where you were years ago as roommates. With family, all it takes is a thought. Take a moment to remember how you used to throw the sticks out of the yard of your brother could mow the lawn. Look back to the days when you and your sibling got in trouble and stood side by side while dad scolded you. Think back to the time when you thought "hand-me-downs" from your older sibling were actually cool. Remember how in the summer you spent all day in the pool, and in the winter, all day in the snow....

And now I'm there - back to that place.

The sound of soulful bagpipes startled me, and for the first time, I realized that people had filled the stands. Along every wall, family and friends stood anticipating the arrival of their soldier, cameras ready. I got my camera out and started recording the empty floor space where the soldiers would be gathering in formation, just to make sure that I wouldn't miss anything. A moment or two passed, then the sharp sound of rapid gunfire splintered through the air. An seemingly endless parade of soldiers ran in, arranging themselves into stiff rows of uniforms. So many men ran by in the same hat, jacket, pants and shoes, that it took me a minutes to see the differences in their faces. Not only did I want to see Matt the moment he ran in, since he had asked me to be the one to present him with his blue infantry cord during the ceremony, I needed to see where he was standing so I would know where to go when it was time. Seemed like ten minutes went by while I searched.

And then I saw him.

Not really him, but part of him. Three rows back and two soldiers in, I saw his name tag that said "Ogle", and his shoes. Everything else was hidden by shoulders and heads of others in the formation. The ceremony began, but I don't really remember it. Different men got up to speak, there was a prayer, a moment of silence, then more men spoke, but I didn't hear what they said. I watched those shoes. I must have taken at least 15 pictures of them while all this was going on. At that point, if I had to drive the 12 hours back home, the trip still would have been worth it.

A few more people talked before I heard the announcement that those presenting the cords could do so now. Immediately, I handed my camera to a girl sitting behind me, and made my way three rows back, two soldiers in. They say good moments usually fly, but when i hugged Matt for the first time in 14 weeks, the sun stood still for me.

The next week, after i got home, Mom called to talk about the trip. She asked me what the three most amazing things were about the week. I told her it was when I saw Matt for the first time, when i saw Matt for the second time, and when I saw Matt for the third time.