Work Related

It's pretty apparent to everyone I love my job. I weather through the ups and downs pretty easily because at the end of the day I'm still giddy about this job. In particular, I love writing extensions for the Bossman. These are read after business is conducted and they forever remain in the the LOC. Pretty freaking cool if you ask me.

An extension is essentially a gold star for exceptional people. Agriculturist of the Year, Teacher of the Year, veterans, etc. (Un)fortunately, this list also includes deceased soldiers. I've written less than a handful for said fallen heroes and while each one is sad, the one I wrote yesterday almost made me shed a tear.

Usually nominated by someone within the community, the heart of the extension is a bio about the individual (that is usually provided by the requester of extension). Obviously, that is usually not the case with a deceased soldier, so I rely heavily on my googling skills to acquire a satisfactory blurb about their achievements outside of the military.

As my day was wrapping up yesterday I decided it was the perfect time to finish an extension for a fallen soldier. My googling skills commenced and low and behold I came across his wife's blog. I read all about her life (well as much as one can when stalking another's blog). I learned how they first met, how he proposed, how they decided to have children right away and I honestly felt like I knew this chick. I saw pictures of their infant daughter and felt ridiculously sad that she will never meet her father. But what I admired most was not one post about how she was angry with the Marines for taking her partner away. She was adamant that her daughter would know what a wonderful man her father was and how much he enjoyed being in the service. I think it's safe to say I'll peek at that blog from time to time now.

A big salute to those in the service or families thereof. It was an honor to write that extension.