Patriotism.

My sister asked me this weekend if Andrew and I would write letters on patriotism for her YW Lesson being a Veteran's wife and a Veteran that she could read to the YW. Seeing as I missed a post on the 4th of July, here's a tribute to the 4th. This is what I came up with, I thought I'd publish it for others to see too:


I am 24 years old and I grew up in Beijing, China.

I never felt like I had patriotism until recently. I have always had a respect for the sacrifices my ancestors made to make our country what it is today. And I have had a respect for the ideology behind the United States of America, but my love, my memories, my friends, my knowledge of the land, my people whom I felt I belonged to and related to the most, are in China. However, I was no longer living in China, I was indefinitely staying in the United States.

I remember the very day my patriotism grew. I met my future husband while he was overseas on a tour of duty in Iraq for the US Army when I was 19. Though we had never met each other, we had been given each other’s email address by a mutual friend and were begged to write each other. My first letter to this soldier, whom I did not know and did not want to write to, was distasteful and unkind. Having
harsh opinions towards our country, our president and those fighting for the war in Iraq. I did not have patriotism.

The soldier subsided my opinions and tried to get to know me. Our letters grew from weekly to daily to many times a day depending on when he was on the gun line. He finally got home on a two-week leave and we met face to face for the first time. We had one week of dating before he had to go back to war. We watched movies, met his entire family, went to the shooting range, hiked to a glacier, and
visited Temple Square in that one week. I also knew that he was going to be the one I marry.

It wasn’t until that night before he had to leave that my patriotism grew. We stayed up the whole night talking, looking at photos and watching the stars. My time with him was soon going to be put on pause. He went and got changed into his uniform. As I saw him walk out of that bathroom tightening the cuffs of his sleeves, stringing the lace through his boots, correcting his collar and shaping his beret to fit properly on his head, I had that special love for him and for the soldiers he was fighting with. He stood for something and he stood because he knew it was the right thing to do. He was leaving his life, his love, his family, his hobbies, his job, his education, his car, and his friends. Why would anyone do this? And after such a great week we had, would you want to leave? He did this because it was a love and loyalty towards our country. Do you have that?

Needless to say, I didn’t want him to leave. He picked me up, hugged me, and swung me around. Then gently placing me in the car, he kissed me good-bye, and I watched him slowly disappear in my rear-view mirror. He had patriotism; he was trying to give more to the Nation by protecting it from those who want to destroy it. It was a selfless service.

And I learned my patriotism from him that very day. I had to believe that this country was worth defending because otherwise I was sending the love of my life off for no reason. I spent the next 4 months until he got home, waking up at 4:30 in the morning to talk to him. Some times I wouldn’t hear from him for days because their base was attacked, or soldiers had medical problems and all communication coming in and out was limited. But this only caused me to have a more devoted love and support towards him as I learned what he was going through by defending me, and my rights to be able to live the way I do. There are soldiers right now putting their life on the line so that every day I can enjoy the things that brighten my day.

I slowly learned that I didn’t want their fight to be in vain. I have a flag visible in my house to try to remember every day to show my respect, love and support towards my country and the soldiers fighting to defend it. I try to be the citizen that they would want to fight for. I participate in my community, I vote for representatives in the government, I now pledge my allegiance to the flag, I speak up and actively participate in law making that would help better the community, I pay my taxes, I obey the law, I talk to my neighbors, and I make the area I live in worth fighting for by making it look beautiful and by not littering, I treat others with respect and I try not to take for granted the rights and the freedoms I have, that others whom I grew up with don’t have.

I hope we all try and do the same every day to not let the soldiers defending our country be in vain and by doing so you too will gain patriotism.

Liz making my army job look good, posing on a M109-A6 Paladin (155mm Self Propelled Howitzer), @ the 2006 Spring Military Ball right after the Iraq tour