Veterans Day

I'll confess that I was pretty miffed that we had to go to school today instead of getting it off for Veterans Day but, whatever. Thanksgiving break is a week from tomorrow anyway so I should probably stop complaining. Wow, I can't believe Thanksgiving is in a week. The end of August, September and October seemed to have dragged by but November seems to be just speeding by. It feels like the end of the semester is right around the corner and the stress of it is coming too. A month from tomorrow will be the last day of finals. So one more month and then I'll be home for Christmas break.

Today since it's the public celebration of Veteran's Day I'd like to talk about that. I guess that I don't really have any stories to go along with that personally, but I do have a lot of members of my family on both sides who have had the courage and valor to serve our country. I know that a lot of countries make it mandatory to serve in the military for a few years (So really it's kind of funny that people freak out about the draft when it happens. In many countries not serving isn't even an option) and so I think that not only is it amazing that our military is almost always supported entirely by volunteers but also that we are given the freedom to choose if we want to serve or not. That's a gift that I know is taken way to far for granted, especially by me. I've never really heavily considered joining the military but even the fact that I can consider it is amazing.

I'm so grateful to live in this country. I know a lot of times, especially with the election having just ended, people whine and moan about everything that's going wrong and how terrible things are. I don't want to say that things couldn't be better and that some things don't need to be changed, but it's also important to realize that we have so much here that others don't. And I'm eternally thankful for those who were and still are willing to take a stand and defend those rights, freedoms and privileges.