The Great Crate

A blog about anything that comes to mind.

The Farewell Post

“Times change, and we change with them.”

I found this quote on Wikipedia while looking through Latin phrases for my tattoo after I get out of basic training. In Latin it reads, “Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis”. I like the English version a lot and there is a good chance I am going to use it in my tattoo. I think it sums up being human very well, and in particular the stage of my life I am at right now. I find myself on the verge of everything ahead of me and everything behind me; there is a line drawn clearly in time and whether I am prepared or not, I am going to step over it. And once I do, everything behind me will fade into the “past” and everything ahead of me will be “potentially present”. I have many ideas for what I’d like the future to be like but to be honest there is no way of knowing until it arrives. For the first time in my life the amount of possibility each day will hold is going to be staggering, and each decision I make will have long term effects. The challenges I am going to face are monumental, but so is the rewards offered. It used to bother me how much I don’t know; now I view it as a comfort. I can never know everything - so there is always something farther to reach towards.

What it all boils down to is potential. Individual potential, and humanity’s potential. It boils down to willpower. Private willpower, and collective willpower. It boils down to acceptance. Acceptance of things that can’t change, and things that won’t. It boils down to belief. Believing in myself, and believing in the world. I would never consider myself a man of faith, but I would consider myself a man of hope. With the journey I am going to begin on Tuesday, January 3rd at basic training, I am going to go in armed with hope that everything works out. I’m throwing my life into the hands of fate and letting it cast whatever result it sees fit. It feels like I am going into a vast ocean that contains all existence and I’m sitting alone in a floatation raft with a paddle. Up until now, I’ve been sitting in the warm room at the top of the lighthouse and looking out at all the other people struggling against the tide to try and find their own place in the ocean, or their own island they can wash up on then name their kingdom. I may be swept under; I may never find home. All I can do is try.

I’m not fine watching other people live anymore. I’m not fine feeling like I am capable of more. I’m not fine having hopes and aspirations and being too certain they will never be fulfilled. I need to concern myself with myself. I need to hold tightly to what I consider true while I am thrown about in the ocean of time and space. Something my Master Sergeant said when I met with him almost two weeks ago really stuck with me. “We’re not going to change who you are as a person, we’re just going to take what’s already there and make it better.” Which is exactly what I want - what I need - in my life. I need to be better. And the lessons I learn while I am in the Air Force I know I will never forget. It all begins on Tuesday. Where I go from there, fate will decide. I wish everyone on here the best of luck in whatever they are doing in the New Year. I will return to the internet sometime in early to mid March, when I head from basic training to tech school and the second part of my Air Force career begins. I hope everyone takes care and does well with their goals. Never stop striving for what you consider great. For me, it’s Crate.

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