Winter and Veterans' Day

Hi friends!

It's officially winter here: single digit temperatures, snowing all day, and I have the fireplace going! It's also Veterans' Day, and I want to write my post on that theme. I've got a few vets in my family: my great grandfather, my great uncle, and Antonio's dad, but I found myself thinking tonight about my childhood friend Nick Xiarhos. We grew up together, were in many of the same classes, and played together at friends' houses. He was smart and athletic, kind and friendly. I remember when we were in elementary school: me, Nick, and my best friend Grace were like a little team. We were very smart--too smart for our own good maybe--and got forced into "gifted and talented" classes together, where we got to skip regular class and did research projects on medieval explorers and things like that. Our teachers loved us, and even the ones that I've talked to recently fondly remember having the three of us together. I remember playing hide and seek at friends' houses, throwing crabapples at the tires of cars driving by; and, for a little while it was our mission at recess to find tiny plants in the middle of the playground, uproot them, and replant them somewhere out of the way where they could grow better. I guess we were weird kids. For various reasons we grew apart as we got older, but Nick remained a smart and kind person to everyone. He was one of those rare kids in high school that didn't care who you were friends with or where you came from. He was nice when everyone else was judgy and self-conscious.

Even though we weren't really close anymore I remember that at graduation me, Grace and Nick were among the top 10 students in our class. Everyone knew that Nick wanted to join the Marines after high school, and he was very vocal about his support for the armed forces. The September 11th attacks were still recent, and President Bush was insisting on making his war in the Middle East. It was a time that shaped all of us.

Nick did two tours in the Middle East, and for some reason he volunteered for a third tour in Afghanistan. I read somewhere afterwards that two soldiers had sacrificed their lives to save Nick and his group of Marines, and perhaps that is what motivated him. He was killed by a roadside bomb on July 23rd of 2009 during his 3rd tour. He was 21. I remember getting the call from my mom with the news. It was weird to think that someone who was so vibrant and alive, someone that I remembered best as a little kid running around the playground, was now dead. His body was sent back in flag-draped coffin. The whole town mourned. The president came to express condolences to his family.

He was a remarkable person, and on days like this I think about how weird and sad it is that he's not alive and successful somewhere. Tonight I wanted to spread his memory around. 

Love you dears! Hug your friends and family and furry pets tight!