As I sometimes do, I am opening up this particular SOFREP space today, on this Veteran’s Day 2016, to a guest contributor.  It is an honor to be able to see what this day means to a 12-year old girl, a post-Millenial.  I think you will all agree, she does us proud.
Veteran’s Day
By Annalise M.
I think that Veteran’s Day is very important, but some of us really don’t celebrate it as much as we do other holidays. I couldn’t help but wonder… why? People have died, or risked their lives fighting for our country. Fighting for peace, fighting for victory, fighting for us, and all we do is go to the school assemblies, daydreaming about our weekend, what we would do next in the long seven hours of school. We should all take a second to realize that as we are sitting here, right now reading this, someone’s daddy, someone’s grandpa, someone’s mom, aunt, uncle, best-friend is fighting for our country. Someone’s family might not be here right now, because he fought for our freedom. Veteran’s day is about celebrating our fallen soldiers, our retired soldiers, and the ones who are fighting now.
I think that Veteran’s Day is pretty cool, because we are celebrating people who are brave enough to go and fight for us. It’s awesome because when I think about it, I could never do it. I like to have my own room, all my things in it, and my phone right next to me so when I wake up I can check instagram and my messages. I like to come home from school with delicious food on my table, and my notebook to draw in, and some lined paper to write a story. I like to get to play outside, or peacefully do my homework. And until now, I never thought a thing about how soldiers can’t do that. They don’t have delicious meals at their table, they don’t get to go get a snack after a long day. Well, now you’re thinking– why would they do it then?
They do it for us.
Can you imagine this: our mom, dad, grandpa, or whoever it is just got home from war. They were in somewhere far away, like, for example, my stepdad was in Afghanistan. I didn’t know him then though, so I have no idea how this feels. Anyway, they get home, and you’re so happy, so excited… but then, you think that they are going to have to leave again in a couple of months and all your joy gets thrown away. So, what is almost just as important as our soldiers, is their families.
I also think that Veteran’s Day shouldn’t just be about famous soldiers, but about people that we don’t even know, because someone is probably very close to that person, even if we aren’t. So, my 3rd grade teacher told us, “If you see someone in a camo uniform, don’t forget to tell them ‘thank you.’ You will never know how much they have been through.” Even though she wasn’t my favorite teacher, I’ve remembered that since, and now I’m in 6th grade!
Happy Veterans day!
Image courtesy of Fox News