Characters

  • 1SG Douglas Dawg
  • CPT Hakim al-Mansoori
  • SPC Cecelia Glass
  • SGT Philip Albright

Locations

  • Rally Site outside al-Halvah Job Site, Iraq

Have you ever noticed how, once you do something –and do it really well– that now you are expected to perform to that level all the time from now on? Even if it took you a lot of hard effort (or a stroke of luck) just to pull it off that one, first time? This is why I encourage people not to be over-achievers, because then the powers that be will expect it of you all the time!

Seriously, now SPC Cecelia Glass is expected to be an expert .50-cal gunner, because she happened to have a sort of natural luck at it a couple time son the range. Now, instead of staying in her office job, she gets to ride the top of an RG-31 MRAP (a Mine-Resistant/Ambush-Protected combat truck) in a hot turret under the Iraqi sun.

Life is like a choose-your-own adventure book. Sometimes you are faced with a choice, and you know what the “correct” choice is supposed to be, but you know that once you commit to a path you will be held to it for years. People who are good with numbers ace a placement test so they can just get a good score and walk away; then they find themselves steered towards a job as an accountant when they really wanted to open a guitar shop or something.

Of course, sometimes you do need to bite the bullet and reveal that you are good at something you don’t necessarily care for in order to, say, get a good job and not live under a bridge for the rest of your life. But for everything else, choose carefully and reveal talents only if you’re ready.

Meanwhile, have a good and insightful Memorial Day. Remember the fallen and take care of each other.

Characters

  • 1SG Douglas Dawg
  • CPT Hakim al-Mansoori
  • SPC Cecelia Glass
  • SGT Philip Albright

Locations

  • Rally Site outside al-Halvah Job Site, Iraq

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