Well friends its been a long time since an update and this truly has to be the hardest section of my story to tell. For weeks now its been truly bothering me to tell this portion of the story. The difficulty is how to explain to the world my relationship with Jana and her folks actions. It would also be an impossible story to tell without appearing spiteful to her folks. In the end, that part of the story will remain unwritten for now and the only people who need to know already know the truth, whether they believe it or not. Jana and I did nothing wrong. I say again, God as my witness, we did nothing wrong. The rest of the story is for another time.
February 2009, while at MEPS a Petty Officer 1st class was sifting through papers and trying to decide where I could best serve the Navy. "I am obligated to tell you about the Spec Ops program," he says pulling a flyer out. "Even though you may not be interested anybody with your scores has to be informed of these options." Well on this flyer is a screaming $75 thousand dollar enlistment bonus with alot of cool pictures of spec ops. I point at the bomb squad asking him what they do. "Basically go to Iraq and disable IEDs, you think you might be interested." Uhm, no mom would not be pleased. Well the next best thing the detailer had was a six thousand dollar sign on bonus with 6 year obligation to serve in a "rate" that deals with weapons and computer systems. Sadly though, the only bootcamp date that he had on his desk had a leave date of March (conflicts with Luke's upcoming wedding) or September. With some arguing and explaining to the detailer that I was not in the Navy yet we settled on the September 16th leave date. This was going to be a loooooong six months.
Well so the Navy gets six years of my life and I got a cool bag, t-shirt, and ball cap. Gangbusters considering what most recruits walked away with.
The next two months were pure torture. Seeing Jana and not being able to say anything, having the constant eye of her parents watching my every move in church. Trying to enjoy going to my own church but their gaze was always judging, always watching, always condemning. The smirks, the accusations, the whispers, and just not knowing what went wrong. What went wrong? The saddest part was seeing the pain in her eyes, the confusion of why is this happening....why does this have to be so hard. On the other hand Luke's wedding is getting closer and unfair to him, I didn't want to be in Texas anymore. Why couldn't the March date work? Oh yeah, he wants his little brother to be his best man and his little brother hates Texas and all the critical people here. Did I mention this was hard to write? :)
After much arguing and convincing on our folks side Luke and I worked out our differences and decided to make the best of his wedding. To pay back for causing such a hassle I treated him and his bride to be for dinner. Afterwards a one way ticket to fly my hermit Grandpa (love you Grandpa Jack!) in for the wedding. Complete surprise! One way ticket because a road trip was planned to take him back! All at the same time of finally finishing the Little Caesar's Pizza with my family. Wow, what a busy two months.
Luke's wedding was an absolute success. The tux, the dress, everything! So happy for him and standing there as his best man will probably be the proudest moment of my life. Afterward there was dancing and my eyes caught Jana's in the crowd. Unfortunately I'd like to write that I asked her to dance. Like to write that we did dance, but the cold hard truth is that her mother's gaze was not far from that poor girl and instead I ended up dancing with Misti's best friend.
In conclusion the three months following MEPS were probably the darkest part of my life. Once again good "christian" people could turn out to be the biggest liars and most hurtful people this world has ever seen. People who desire control and have the skeletons in the background to need it have no right to treat their children like Jana's folks treated her. I know I said that this would remain for another time and this will probably be a mistake writing but sometimes these things need be said. I loved Jana with pure emotion and intentions, she loved me in return yet fearful that her dream would run from her and her past. Her parents loved themselves and loved the shield "homeschooling" and "courtship" provided to hide their sin. At that time however most of the truth was hidden from me and I was called a predator, rebellious, and arrogant. The third one was true :) They just hoped that either I would do something to fill their gossip circles with or I would drop off the face of the earth because their little circle of control was being invaded. The truth that who they were at home and the image they kept would shatter. Well, they only had four months left and I was tired. Just tired of it all.
