the post with the people I'll never see again.

Other than the fact that if I die, I have no idea where I’ll get buried, I have always L.O.V.E.D. (all caps, each letter read individually) being an Air Force brat. I’ve gotten to see parts of the world that a lot of my friends haven’t. I have friends literally all over the world (meaning that if I travel, I have a couch to sleep on). I have lived an overall privileged life, and I’ve gotten several opportunities that I wouldn’t have gotten had my dad not been in the military. I’ve met so many amazing people throughout my life thanks to my dad’s career choice. Not only because of the places I’ve lived in while living with him, but also because it’s a great conversation starter. The Air Force has some pretty amazing people in it, and I love sharing stories with the military people I meet.

That being said, it makes me really sad whenever I meet people that I’m never going to see or speak to again. Not only people I’ve met through moving around a lot, but also people I meet at work, when I’m out with friends, or on vacation. I’ve compiled a list of a few examples.

The most recent example: I met this man at work who is currently in the Air Force. I don’t know his name or what he does in the military, but we had a really nice chat. He’s originally from Delhi, Louisiana, so naturally that sparked up a lengthy conversation. We talked about how we hate that when we tell people we’re from Louisiana, they automatically think we live in swamps and have alligators in our backyard. We discussed our love for crawfish and king cake. Then, of course, since he’s in the Air Force, we talked about places we’ve lived. We both lived in Okinawa for awhile, but we had completely different experiences, considering I was 5-8 when I lived there, and he was there in his early 20’s. He told me about his wife (who is from Oregon) and how he was stationed in Idaho for a little while, but hated it because there was nothing to do. Right now, he’s living in Sumter, SC, which is about an hour and a half outside of Charleston, where I lived, so we spent a little bit of time talking about how we loved the beach. Like I said, I never knew his name, so I called him “Leather Jacket Guy” because he wore this black leather jacket with stripes on the shoulders. He was incredibly nice, and we had an awesome conversation, and I am unbelievably sad that I will never talk to him again. He had stayed at the hotel for a couple of weeks, so I had had other conversations with him, but the last one we had was the longest, and most memorable. He was a very nice guy.

When I went on a cruise with my friends in college (we dubbed ourselves the “Tech Fam.” There were ten of us, but only six went on the cruise.), we met these two guys on the beach in Progreso. We had just gone on the banana boat (amazingly fun) and they took a group picture of us and then took a picture with us. We discovered they were on the same cruise as us. We had some light, fun conversation before leaving to get back on the boat. We saw them again when we all decided to go to a Burlesque show on the boat (scandalous). They ended up peace-ing out early with uncomfortable, awkward looks on their faces. Bless their hearts; they weren’t even old enough to drink, except in Mexico. We also ran into them on our last day of the cruise. We were going to our last breakfast, and they were eating with their parents. I remember them saying that they were best friends. I don’t remember everything that we talked about with those guys, but apparently they made enough of an impact to be included in this post.

Chris and Maverick, the guys we met in Progreso, are the ones on the outside in the back. 

When I was in middle school, I had this amazing group of girlfriends. I loved all of them, and I still talk to a few of them every once in awhile. There was this one girl named Ashley who was just as sweet as can be. In eighth grade, we were in Advanced Art together, and, as a class, we went to New York City. It was an absolute blast. I believe there were four of us in the room – Ashley, Melissa, Emily, and me. The four of us pretty much stuck together the whole trip. I remember this one conversation from the trip. Ashley was showing the rest of us the shirt she wanted to wear the next day, and she was asking us our opinion of it. We all thought it was a sleep shirt. It was a cute little thermal though, and she wore it. I also remember her buying an “I heart mom” shirt and wearing it on the trip. There were lots of Ashley memories at my friend, Melissa’s, house. She always had random parties and get-togethers at her place (she had her own room. Lucky!) and Ashley attended a lot of these. Randomly, she just left South Carolina with her mom. We had no way of contacting her or anything. I don’t even know her last name, so a Facebook search would be impossible, but she really was such a sweet person, and I’m glad she was in my life for a little while.

Ashley is the one in the pink "I heart MOM" shirt. The other two girls are Emily and Melissa.
Sorry for being so cute in middle school.

The moral of the blog is, I’ve met some amazing people in my life. And though the aforementioned conversations and memories may seem insignificant to most, they obviously impacted me enough for me to remember these people and be sad that I’ll never get to talk to them again. Even Facebook can’t solve this problem. I guess the important thing is that I had the opportunity to know them in the first place. Like I said, I consider myself a lucky person to have lived the life I live, and sometimes, I take things for granted, but I’m learning not to since I’m getting older and wiser. My sister is constantly reminding me that I’m turning 24 this year. When did that happen? Anyway, I love people, and I love learning about other people’s lives because they’re always so different from mine. This just makes my desire to travel even greater. I’m ready for an adventure.

-- tiffanykhyla.