I graduated high school in 2012 and during my graduation ceremony, whoever calls the names also calls where the graduate will be going after high school. My graduating class didn't have all that many going to the military directly after high school, but a year later a sizeable portion of my classmates went off to join the military.
My best friends from high school all went off to the military, Army. Air Force, Marines, Navy and National Guard, for one reason or another, while I went to college to get a degree in a field that I loved and had a passion for.
When your family members leave for basic training and tech school, you learn about the branch and witness the good byes and returns. When your best friend leaves for for Basic and Tech School, it's bittersweet. You aren't sure if you'll stay in contact or not. You won't be able to just hop on your phone and text them to hang out. They gain new friends and, sometimes, love interests and they tell you about it.
When my best friend left for the Air Force, I didn't know what to do. We had played sports together, hiked in the woods, camped in the woods, spent nights and days awake playing video games and also working our butts off to make a couple dollars scraping metal. We were on a “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2” team together, along with two other best friends, and we qualified to compete in the world championship. My family welcomed him and his welcomed me. Whenever we played any video game, regardless of genre, we worked in tandem and I equated us to Jaeger Pilots from "Pacific Rim."
When he left for basic, I was in the middle of a semester at school and couldn't watch him get on the plane. I didn’t know what to do with myself until he went to tech school; I had lost one of the few friends in my hometown, at least for a few months. Thankfully, our friendship lasted through our separation. He has gotten married and has a son who is about to turn one year old, and he is my nephew.
Even now when our friendship is tested, we have found ways to overcome it and every day I learn something else about my best friend of six years. So when your best friend goes off to the military, there is only two choices that you have: walk away or wait. Sometimes the better option presents itself when they come back from basic training.
