A little about me

This blog is going to be kind of a reintroduction of me. I am 28 (almost 30 as my wife would put it) I am married and a father of three great kids. My oldest son is now nine and is in the third grade. My little girl is five now and is beautiful and my princess. My youngest boy is almost two and completely spoiled rotten. We are a happy family and as most families do we have our ups and downs. With three kids it can get kind of hectic from time to time. My wife and I are both in school full time here at southern and that alone can get kind of stressful. She is an English education major in her third year so she is taking a lot of writing intensive courses that require her to do a lot of reading so a lot of her free time is spent with a nose in the books.

 I am a Biology pre/med major. I plan on going to med school as soon as I graduate Southern. My future plans are to become a surgeon of some sort. I lean towards either plastic surgery or trauma surgery.

I won’t really know what for sure that I will do until I get into med school and do some rotations in the different fields that I will have to chose from. I am trying to leave my mind open to the possibility of changing my plans. Who knows I may find a place in medicine that I didn’t know that I wanted to go into. My hopes are that one in particular field really stands out to me once I get there. I hope to have one of those “ahh ha” moments that tells me yea this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. This is what I hope at least but I don’t hold that as a major possibility. I have never had that deep desire for anything in my life. I have always been good at anything that I do but have never really said “yea this is what I love doing” Don’t get me wrong I do love medicine and the fields related to it. Biology has always been a special interest of mine and figuring out how things work has been a knack I have had all my life.

I love being in school and learning. I have spent the last ten years of my life working from job to job and doing things that most people wouldn’t be able to handle. I have worked construction in the hot sun and I have worked in the freezing cold. I worked in a foundry for a year. That place was so horrible that most people didn’t make it through orientation. The plant was 140 degrees most of the time and you worked with aluminum that was close to 2000 degrees so it could be a daunting job from time to time. Being in school is the best thing that I have done with my life besides my family. I really enjoy learning and also not having to work at some factory is nice too.

Dont ask Dont tell

This is a story about the “don’t ask, Don’t tell” rule being repealed in the military. The Military will begin training its people for the first time in February. The training will be going in three phases; first they will be training people like lawyers, chaplains, administrators and civilian personnel, then they will move on to leadership like commanding officers and such, lastly they will train the rest of the military.

            This has been a largely disputed and controversial topic among a lot of people in and out of the military. People that are against repelling the law are claiming that letting people openly serve as gay or lesbian will cause people, both gay and not gay, a lot of problems. They say that it will cause harassment and also issues about privacy and worries about showers, restrooms, and barracks. I have friends that were in the Marines and they all say that the repeal of the law is a bad thing for the Marines. One friend of mine stated that the Marines operate at a level of battle that requires trust among members of a unit. These men have to go into these battles and look out for each other. If one or more guys in the unit are openly gay then there would most likely be homophobic tendencies of the other members that are worried about serving with a gay member.

The other side of this argument is that all people should be able to be themselves and if that is gay then they shouldn’t have to hide it. Arguments for repealing the law include people’s rights. Peoples rights are just that their rights. If someone is gay they shouldn’t have to hide it in fear of retribution of commanding officers or losing their jobs.

My personal belief on this is one of mixed emotions. I don’t believe that anyone should be forced to do anything that they don’t want to do. I don’t think that being gay or straight intitles you to anything better than the next person. My biggest question about this whole thing would have to be “why is this an issue?” that is what bothers me the most about the whole thing. Why is it that we have to make it a rule to not be openly gay or make a rule that it is ok to be openly gay? I understand that a lot of gay people might be offended that the rule was there in the first place. Do we really need to make this big of deal about it though? Why can’t they just get rid of the rule and go on with life. I’m not even sure what they could possibly be training people for on this subject. It is my understanding, and please correct me if I’m wrong, that Gays and lesbians want to be treated like everyone else. If this is the case then so be it. If you are gay then be gay if you’re not then don’t be gay it is a simple as that.  I don’t think that one trait about a person should decide who they are. I personally think that someone in the Marines, or any other branch for that matter is a soldier first then whatever else second. Gay is not a definition of someone just merely an aspect of that person.