Soldiers.

I don't know what kind of comments I'm going to get for this, but please watch this video.

Right now, someone I knew in middle school is missing her boyfriend in Iraq. We're praying for a church member overseas. One of my co-coaches won't see the love of her life until Christmas. He's been gone since early July.
It's very, very odd to me how close this is hitting to home. I don't know what I would do in that situation. How easy it would be to be selfish, to make my boyfriend or husband or brother stay home, to keep the people I love the most safe. How easy it would be for them not to step up to this plate. But they have, and they're doing it. My own peers are experiencing this sacrifice, this pain. And they're doing it because they're thinking outside themselves.

I've made it a habit of staying away from the war in Iraq and my feelings toward it. I'm torn and feel the conflict of bringing it up is unnecessary. But no matter the issues, these people are defending ideals that they, apparently, hold more dear than their own lives. They're defending a country they believe in. And I think the least we could do is believe in them.