reminders.

(Back to today.)

Now that I am caught up to posting what I had jotted down while we were gone, I find myself thinking about what I missed, what has meant the most to me so far. I feel like I have been here so long and yet so short a time.... ten weeks have passed in the blink of an eye...

I expected to come and be slightly miserable and in a hurry to get home and through the next four and a half years. What I have gotten could not be further from that. I never expected that I would end up in the middle of a response to one of the worst disasters of our time. The Admiral came to visit our crew today... he talked about how this is history in the making.... not in the good way, but in the way that this disaster will forever shape Japan and much of the world.

He talked to our crew not because he had to but because he wanted to remind them that the work they have been doing is important and truly made a difference. He was on board maybe an hour... such a small thing but such a large gesture. This showed me what a good thing it can be to be reminded that your work is important...that you are helping to accomplish something worthwhile. I spent my whole life thus far chasing a goal to do something where I could make a difference and help others...what a great reminder today was that you can help in all sorts of ways, even when you least expect to...

I may not be doing anything special on my own, but I know that the combined efforts of all of us out here made a difference to at least some people. And THAT makes it all worth the effort. 

Turns out the things I am finding that I most want to hold onto from this experience are not what I am doing, but what I am learning. Lesson today: Remind the people you work with that they and the work they do is important. This goes a long way to make tough days less painful and worth the trouble.