Some of the best memories I have of being in the service have nothing to do with the actual Navy itself. They have everything to do with the people I was around.

I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t that attentive to my studies while on the ship. I was too busy finding people to spend my time with so I wouldn’t feel so damned lonely. It was hard being away from my wife for half a year and wonder how she was day to day. Sure, we had internet (when we weren’t in covert ops) and snail mail, but it wasn’t the same as waking up next to her and being able to stroke her hair.

So I made friends. I made a lot of friends. People from other divisions, other sides of the ship, and other ages. It didn’t matter. They kept my mind of off failing my studies and missing my wife.

In my down time (which there was a lot of), I would play cards, go on shore leave, or just shoot the breeze with these people and they would make me forget – just for a moment – that I was only one in eight thousand people who was also missing home.