A time I was at my best

Recently in a freshman recitation class that I co-teach for the Hixson Opportunity Scholarship Program we assigned our students to blog about a time when they feel they were at their best. At first I tried to consider what the students might choose as the time that they were at their best, so I thought of some typical scenarios I would expect to read about. Later that night the thought crossed my mind again, but instead this time I directed the question towards myself and asked "When was the time that I was at my best?" I thought back and  remembered that I had a successful high school career. I graduated with honors, was a member of the National Honor Society, had a successful experience with high school sports, and had a semester of college credits completed. I went on to Iowa State and had success with my classes, and was a promising member of the Iowa State Dairy Science Club. On June 30th, 2009, following my freshman year I made a decision to no longer be a bystander and enlist in the United States Army as a member of the Iowa National Guard and my life changed forever.Anything I'd done before then wouldn't even come close to what I consider the time when I felt I was at my best.The time I was at my best was on July 18th, 2011, the day I came home from a year long deployment to the Nuristan Province of Eastern Afghanistan.
        On August 3rd, 2010 myself and the rest of the men of Charlie Company, 1-133rd "Ironman" Battalion said goodbye to our families, friends, and loved ones to train for a roughly a month at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. Following Camp Shelby we spent a few weeks at Fort Irwin, California. I didn't know exactly what to expect once we arrived in the theater of Afghanistan, so like most of us, I mentally and physically prepared for the worse case scenario once we arrived in theater. To be honest all of us were all ready to stop shooting blank ammo, and bandaging fake wounds; It was time for something more real.

         The deployment was long, but it was a good infantry deployment. In some ways it was a lot of what I expected it to be, but at the same time I couldn't have dreamed up half of the things that went on. We can a number men from Charlie company go home early from injuries sustained in IED blasts, among other instances of troops in contact, but in the end everybody made it home to their families and went on to live their lives to the fullest.

        On July 18th at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls we were finally welcomed home. After a year of never feeling at home, always being on alert, and physical separation from those who mean the most to us, the noise finally came to rest. For once those feelings were replaced with security, love, and eventually beer. I was in the best shape of my life, I had a loving girlfriend that I'm still with today, and had a few more dollars to my bank account. I was registered for classes at Iowa State in the fall, and was ready to take on anything life in the civilian world could throw at me, because it had to be a hell of a lot easier than what we just went through. This was the time that  I was my best.