05.05.2010
War changes lives. Not a new concept by any means, but nonetheless, a concept that awoke new perspective tonight inspired by a class discussion tonight.
We were talking about the Vietnam War and my instructor, who’s a young guy at the ripe old age of 27 (makes me feel kinda dumb that someone younger is critiquing me and doling out a grade to me but whatever. Age is a number, I guess). So we’re discussing the Vietnam War and he mentions that his parents knew people who chose to stay in school and eventually got PhD’s because it would keep them in school and they didn’t have to go into the military. Before the draft was in full effect you were apparently exonerated if you were attending college. So people who would’ve otherwise not gone to college or stopped going after a BA kept going so they wouldn’t have to ‘Nam.
It got me thinking about how much life in general takes us on unexpected turns – sort of along the lines of my entry from a few weeks ago about “unexpected detours.” But how so much of this really happens when war breaks out. If WWII never happened, I would’ve most likely never been born cause my grandparents would’ve stayed in Lithuania and my mom would’ve never met my dad (who is not Lithuanian). Or, even better, if my grandparents hadn’t chosen to leave Lithuania at the start of the war then I probably would’ve never been born either.
Our lives unfold before us on a daily basis without us even realizing it. We get involved in our daily routines, problems, issues, etc. that we don’t really reflect on how it is that we got to this very moment. What choices were made in our past, in our parents’ past, our grandparents’ past, etc. that brought us to this exact moment. I do believe in purpose and that everything happens for a reason and it happens when it is supposed to happen, if it even is supposed to happen. It makes me wonder about our future child and, if it’s meant to happen, how the timing of that little person will be just perfect.
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