Gabriel and the Military

The older my kids get, the less blog time they receive; generally they want it this way. Gabriel has been known to scrutinize any pictures of himself that I put on the blog rather harshly. (Should this blog post disappear at any time, assume that he caught wind of it and didn't approve it for whatever reason.)

Gabriel is a senior this year and has spent the year agonizing over what he wants to do with his life. Let me just say that I'd be happy to set his course for him, but it isn't what he is interested in. I just want him to do their college on-line or down the road at the local community college, but Gabriel has never been very academically motivated. He intends on completing college, but doesn't want to be a full-time student. Gabriel has also always wanted to be a police-man or in the military, so he has been actively looking into combining those passions. It seems in spite of Gabriel being 50% my DNA, he is 100% like his father and his quest for adventure is much higher than his quest for knowledge.

The short story is that Gabriel has been talking to every military recruiter. They all have different programs, different strengths and different educational opportunities. He is about 99.9% sure that he is going to join one of them, so it's just a matter of what route he feels called to go.

In my defense, I grew up as a military daughter. I married JD at his seven year mark in the Navy, and finished the 20 years as a Navy wife. It's a hard life in a lot of ways; it's not the first pick that I would probably choose for any of my children. I've pretty much always told Gabriel that he can only consider joining the military AFTER college. Well, that's not going any better than all those years I said, "I certainly won't marry anyone in the military!"

So, I'm praying for peace. I've prayed for signs. I'm praying for wisdom for Gabriel.

We did ask him to delay any final decisions until after the men's retreat that he and JD went on last weekend. Now it's come and gone and the final decision is getting closer. I'll keep you posted.

Here's a few unauthorized photos of Gabriel from last weekends retreat. Here he is doing something "fun" that I would consider torture!

Here he is in a friendly game of flag-football.


I know everyone must think this, but I keep thinking........... where has the last 18 years gone? How can I be old enough to have a child that may actually leave the nest? (sigh)