My desert home
It’s been wonderful being back in El Paso for the last year and more. I’ve been so used to traveling and moving that our little six-week trip in September and October back East just wasn’t enough to cure my bug, but at the same time, I’m home.
I graduated from Socorro High School here in El Paso back in the 80’s and then went straight 
into the Marine Corps as a 17-year-old. My friends and I were so hurried to get out on our own. Of my two best friends, one graduated mid-term and married the day after our last class. I graduated mid-term also and left for boot camp in January. While my friends were enjoying the prom I was on bivouac in Parris Island and by the time they were graduating, I was at my first duty station in North Carolina. At age 21, when many young adults are moving out of their parents’ homes, I was completing a four-year tour of duty.
Although I have a lot of pride associated with my service (even my youngest daughter became a Marine) I recently have had reminders of the unique experiences that I lost in all my ambition. I followed the military for 25 years and it was only my position with the American Red Cross that brought me back home to Texas, serving as the Station Manager at William Beaumont Army Medical Center.
Within a year of leaving El Paso so long ago I lost touch with my first love. The last I heard from my best friends was about ten years ago. We’re now in our 40s, married, divorced, children. Although we’ve all gone in different directions, we will never lose our common denominator. And maybe I’m a sentimental fool now, but I’d love to see them all, hear their voices, cry with them, laugh with them, and heal their wounds.
In January I leave El Paso, but in December I’ll be back, back to my favorite place, my desert home.
traveling tUUsome 