The Inner World of Eden: Part Two: Destination "Gem City"

Greetings My Fellow Reader:

I hope you're having a wonderful week! We made it to Friday! Or, as I like to say, "Happy Fri-Yay!" 😁

Well, my stay has been short-lived and now I am getting ready to head off to the next town on my mini excursion. Sometimes, as life happens, you just need a break and to get away. I encourage you to set aside some time and a budget strictly for what we would call in the military - "RnR"or "Rest and Relaxation" after a long deployment or Temporary Duty (known as a TDY). I am finding in my own life the importance of incorporating self-care and finding a balance between work, life, home and family.

I have spent a lot of time working and it has been ingrained in me since my younger days, when I was a 19-year-old in the United States Navy. You learn to become a Jack of All Trades and to multi-task as a professional in your related career field and other extracurricular duties, which also includes cleaning. When it comes to working and cleaning, the military is great at providing such discipline and instruction. When you are an 18-year-old with an open-mind and easy-going personality, that means you are easily impressionable and coachable. That was me.

As such, I have carried a lot of that discipline with me over the years. Sometimes, my absent-mindedness gets in the way, but that's because as someone who has struggled with mental health and workaholic-ism (is there such a word?), I am finding that I need mental breaks often, which leads me to my final entry of my stay in the Gem City of Quincy.

I am a traveler and enjoy even the smallest towns and places I would never have thought to travel to, such as Quincy. Who would want to go here? Well, for starters - while venturing out I came across an interesting tidbit of the history of this place. I found a piece of the World Trade Center, which has been given to this city due to some of the factory pieces that were made right here.

As a matter of fact - if you can read the inscription on the photo - this piece was part of the Antenna Tower, which was located at the rooftop of the WTC Building #1. It was destroyed during the tragic events of 9/11.

As young, local kids were walking along the street on their way home from school and amongst other local passersby, I stood there for a moment with a sobering expression and thought about that day all those years ago. We are now embarking on 20 years of this tragic anniversary. I was on terminal leave from the Navy living in Orlando, Florida when it happened. I looked at the plane that ran into the second tower on Fox News and was in a state of surreal shock. In my mind, I was thinking, "Is that real?" "This has to be a movie." Unfortunately, it was not. Both towers were hit and you could see the building crumble down with smoke, soot and facility material as the world watched in horror.

I was feeling sort of bitter about the Navy and I was waiting to get my honorable discharge paperwork known as a "DD-214" in a few days. When the towers were hit, despite my angst against the Navy, this military bearing rose up within me and I wanted to go back in. This time, I was going to see an Air Force recruiter and inquire about joining.

When I finally received my DD-214 from the Navy, my dad took me to the recruiting office in Kissimmee, Florida where I asked the Air Force Recruiter if they were taking prior service members? He said "yes," and I signed up.

Though I was a former service member freshly out of the service, I was required to go through the Military Entrance Processing station known as "MEPS" once again. I was scheduled to go through the process in December 2001. MEPS is the first stop for recruits entering military service in the United States when young people first sign up to join the military to assess an applicant's physical qualifications, aptitude and moral standards as set by each branch of military service, the Department of Defense and federal law.

As usual, I passed with "flying colors" so we say. A term or common idiom in the military we use to describe how well someone has completed a task or passed the test easily or with an exceptionally high score. I was 22 years old when I was crossing over into the Air Force. I didn't know where the road ahead was leading me, but I was excited about my new venture and I put my faith in God that He was leading me where I needed to go.

I "shipped out" to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas for a two-week prior service introduction on April 11, 2002. From there I would head to a six-week technical school for the career field I chose as a Command Post Controller and off to Edwards Air Force Base for my first and only duty station as a Senior Airman in the United States Air Force.

But that is another story.