September thoughts...

 As September 11th gets closer, I have been thinking about our trajectories in life. Many people who were in the towers that day or in any of the hijacked planes were in those places because of previous events and decisions that put them there in the first place. Are their people who should have been in those places and weren't because they made ever so slightly different decisions? Most likely. 

This thinking may be a bit selfish on my part because it makes me think about my life now, and how no matter how indirectly, this one day when I was a mere 12 year old girl would impact the way I live my life. 

If we flash back to September 11, 2001 young Sam Coffey was in his 9th grade year. Upon seeing news reports of the events of the day, this teen made the decision that he would join the military. While he grew up with grandpas and uncles in the military, nothing was so compelling as this day to sway him to his decision to join. If you would have spoken to Sam on this day, I am sure he would have told you he would be joining at 17.5 years old and boom! As life goes, it didn't work out the way he planned. 

By the time I met Sam at age 24(ish, I think), he had not yet joined, but still knew he would. Things started to get serious after a short amount of time, and Sam spoke often of joining up as a PJ in the air force...this was a common topic of discussion and continued to be after we were married. If you aren't familiar with what a PJ is, it is special ops for the air force. Mainly pararescue, and it has one of the most vigorous training paths in the air force. Sam knew he would be able to do it because his ASVAB score would have allowed him to do anything.....but now having a wife, he realized it was something that needed more input from his number 2. AKA--me (Although it can be argued that I am number 1, and Sam is my number 2...but for the sake of the story..). 

The thought of Sam doing something so dangerous scared me to death. I fell hard for this guy, and he wanted to sign up for a freaking death sentence...no. So we discussed and came to what I felt was a very comfortable compromise. Sam got his wish of joining the military and even being full time, and I didn't have to commit to moving around all the time and worrying about what dangerous things he was doing on the daily. Sam has been  with the Utah Air National Guard for about 11 years, and has been full time for about 5. He works on Communication equipment on Air Bases around the world and I have never seen him happier. I am sure his mom can agree with me. He has found his life calling. 

I can't help but think where his life would be if not for the events of September 11. Would Sam have felt so passionately about joining up as soon as he could? Would he have felt as passionate about serving his country at all? Selfishly, I can't help but ask if he would be home with me right now if not for these events...would 12 year old Jess be excited or Sad to know that her future husband would be gone at least 1/3 of the time serving? 

I wonder how many other people who witnessed these events went out and joined the military. At the time, people were sacrificing their time and effort to volunteer countless hours to cleaning up and going on rubble rescue missions...how many watched all of these things and are now part of our military today? How many watched troops deploy to the Middle East and thought they needed to be there? These have been all of the questions running through my mind this week...how many people watched these events unfold and without realizing it, changed the trajectory of their entire life? ENTIRE LIFE. 


Some of you may be thinking that I was so young when this happened, and I don't really know what I am talking about, and maybe that is true. What I do know is that this was one of the scariest tragedies in my life, and it left a huge impact on me, and we all have thoughts about it. These are mine. 




Visiting the 9/11 memorial for the first time this summer. 

These Aviators I sent to Sam so he can play Top Gun while he is deployed. 

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