I spent this afternoon at a college football game in southern Virginia with my family. When I was a child I was taught to have respect for the great country that I am so blessed to be living in. The United States of America is truly great.

You never know what the people around you have been through. You never know if the little girl next to you doesn’t have a dad because he died fighting in Iraq for your freedom. You don’t know if the “bad boy” in high school is bad because he lost his mother in 9/11. You don’t know if the woman serving your table has three kids at home with her husband in the Special Forces, and never has any idea where he is at for months at a time.

The point is, you never know who the people around you are or what they have been through.

When everyone was asked to rise for the National Anthem this afternoon, a woman a few seats down from me, would not get up. She sat there with a smirk on her face and when the song was over she proceeded to get up and walk to the food truck.

I promise to you, it took every part of me to not scream at the top of my lungs across the bleachers at her to tell her what absolute garbage I thought she was.

You never know who is around you…

My dad dedicated his life to protecting the security of the United States of America. He served in the FBI for years and then joined the Department of Defense after. When I was in high school my dad deployed to Afghanistan for several months and lived in a tent in the middle of nowhere. I watched my mom cry for those months he was gone, and she cried a lot. I watched my brother miss his dad.

When I became older, I got into a relationship with a guy who was in the army. We have spent about half of our five year relationship away from each other because of the courageous choice he made to serve his country. This past year, he was deployed to the Middle East.

He was gone for eleven months. How hard do you think that was, girls?

And then there is me. I have spent about eighty thousand dollars on a degree at George Mason University studying how to protect this country from terrorists. It’s not even about the money. It’s about how I have worked, about the mental strain I have put myself through, it’s about how I eat, sleep, study and work and nothing else.

You never know who is around you.

So when I am at a college football game and the announcer asks to please remove your hats and stand for the National Anthem,

You stand up.

If not, why are you even here?