A couple weeks ago my nephew Luke was sworn in as a member of the Minnesota Army National Guard.\u00a0 Many of your have watched Luke grow up through the social media posts from me and my husband.\u00a0 Some of you know him as one of the “Two Yoots”.<\/p>\n
I have known this was a possibility for some time.\u00a0 But seeing the photos of him being officially sworn in and having the date he heads out for basic training were still a little surreal.\u00a0 Like many of you, in my mind Luke is still a little kid.\u00a0 I remember holding him at his Baptism and worrying about dropping him. I remember watching him start walking good for the first time at a family gathering.\u00a0 Him being 19 years old is a lot to digest.<\/p>\n
My first feeling was pride.\u00a0 Luke spent a lot of time asking questions and talking to people he knows in the military before signing up.\u00a0 I know he did not make this decision lightly and I know that he has the determination to succeed.\u00a0 I know he’s kind of struggling with figuring out what he wants to do with his life – as many of us do.\u00a0 So I am proud of him for making this very adult decision.<\/p>\n
After the pride the worry set in.\u00a0 I know several people who, during their service in the National Guards, got called up and sent overseas.\u00a0 One of them who spent time in the Middle East saw quite a bit of action.\u00a0 He was seriously injured and a few of his buddies were killed.\u00a0 The idea of Luke getting his head blown off in Israel or Ukraine or God knows where scares the ever loving shit out of me.\u00a0 He is the closest thing I have to a son and I love him with every fiber of my being.\u00a0 The idea of him taking a bullet for his country is almost too much to contemplate.<\/p>\n
But at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what I think. This is Luke’s life and Luke’s decision.\u00a0 He told me some time ago that a few people he shared his potential plans with immediately tried to talk him out of it.\u00a0 I did not.\u00a0 I support his decision and I hope he finds what he’s looking for.\u00a0 And I REALLY hope he finds whatever that is in Minnesota.<\/p>\n
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A couple weeks ago my nephew Luke was sworn in as a member of the Minnesota Army National Guard.\u00a0 Many of your have watched Luke grow up through the social media posts from me and my husband.\u00a0 Some of you know him as one of the “Two Yoots”. I have known this was a possibility for some time.\u00a0 But seeing… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-its-all-love"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t