Packing

Heading to Japan has been hitting me in waves.

First, this morning while running in Chinatown down on Mott Street, I was thinking, well, this is will be a familiar scene soon enough.

Then, this afternoon as I left Swift over on East 4th and the weekly student Happy Hour it hit me, oh my goodness, I am going so far away!

Finally, when I was packing, I went to get my uniforms out. I carefully removed the collar device from my camis and put it in a bag as back up for the khakis and whites I am bringing with me. And I thought about the awesomeness of being an officer in the United States Navy. I am an officer in the US Navy. It seems unreal to me.

Do I remember how to salute? Will I get enough of the protocol right so as not to embarrass my self and the courageous Master Chief (and others) who have put their faith in me to make them proud when I am overseas? Will I survive 13 hours on a plane to Japan?

All week I have been uncomfortable with colleagues' responses of, oh my goodness, that is so cool! When I tell them what I am doing. Andrew (the fabulous boyfriend) pushed me on what I was so uncomfortable about...because "this is so cool" was my reason for signing on...and it is not the right reason to go and do this thing. But, I do feel that now that I have committed, I am going for the right reasons. I want to serve this under served and often forgotten segment of the Jewish corpus. All of Israel is responsible for one another-even sailors overseas.

I am not worried about what will happen once I get there. I feel a great sense of my smallness in the face of the awesomeness of the task of being the spiritual leader to people half way around the world and many worlds away. I do not know what their lives are like, yet I have the task of helping them through this holy holy days. I believe I can do this. I am excited to try.