Joining The Fight: Personal Narrative Analysis

Joining the Fight One well-placed mortar or bullet can change your future or end it altogether. I was looking forward to my first overseas deployment with nervous anticipation for months. Three months in Iraq, it was not an especially long deployment, but the unknown was turning my stomach into a tangle of weeds. What was it going to be like? I signed up for this job as a government contractor and these trips to new and potentially dangerous locales were going to be a normal part of my life now. I stepped off the C-130 aircraft that delivered me to this foreign place and examined what was to be my life for the next few months. A heavy bag containing my equipment slung over my shoulder, feeling as if I was dragging an anchor behind me, made …show more content…
Each day offered a new adventure, a new obstacle to overcome. I looked forward to each day as if I were a child stuck in an amusement park. The smell of the base and the persistent grime covering everything faded into a distant memory, as I had grown accustomed to it. I genuinely enjoyed being at this place, it was not alien, merely different from what I was used to. Eventually the deployment neared its end and I was ready to leave. My belongings, stained with the same amber color as the land they protected me from, packed neatly in cases ready for their journey back. Excitement filled me as I walked steadily towards the waiting aircraft; the aged metallic smell of the plane welcomed me as I found an open seat, the familiar crude bench digging into me as if it was made out of wood planks. The anticipation of leaving this place made my stomach feel as if a hurricane had been unleashed inside of it, as the doors closed as the engines groaned to life. As I paced off the aircraft of the final leg of my journey home, I breathed a sigh of relief with the knowledge I had returned home. The bright lights of restaurants, the towering mountains a mere 5 miles away, even the exhaust-laden smell of the city, all welcomed me back with a warm embrace. The normally agonizing chore of dragging my luggage to my car was as pleasing as listening to your favorite …show more content…
I was happy to be home, yet some part of me missed the base that fostered me, the friends I had made and the thrill of the excursion. I no longer feared what dangers may lay ahead, the unanswered questions of what to expect, I yearned for it. The pure excitement and rush of delving into the unknown was all worth it. As I ate my first home cooked meal that night, only one question invaded my mind, a question that eventually enveloped my thoughts as the sunlight does to a morning landscape. When can I go