Rebirth!

It wasn’t a particularly exciting day but today was pretty fun. For the past week or two I’ve been getting a bit bored with my job, it just seemed like an exhausting chore flying around all day. Same drill, different faces. Today though, I relearned a long forgotten lesson about motivating myself.

The last run of the day was out to a place called FOB Wilson which is out on the other side of Kandahar city from the base here. We flew a few managers out for some meetings and bummed around the LZ waiting for them. On the way back I picked up a few extra “hitch-hikers” looking to come back to KAF, a good bunch of folks. They were all really excited to be in a helicopter and they just about flipped out with excitement when I opened up all of the windows so they could take pictures and thrust their hands out into the jet-stream, something that never gets old!

Their enthusiasm was quite contagious and as I started pointing out landmarks like ancient forts and ruins, battle sites, the tomb where Mohammed’s nephew is buried; their excitement made me realize how much I’d been taking for granted how awesome my job is.

All of a sudden it was once again exciting to be in a helicopter, the rugged razor-back mountains were gnarlier, and the lake out near Frontenac was even more beautiful than normal. It was as if I had consumed some magic elixir that completely refreshed the way I look at things, it felt good. One of the funnier sights I’ve seen in awhile was a Canadian Major that I picked up sticking his out completely out the window and making his cheeks flap and blow in the wind, just because he could and it was fun. The flight back was almost as much fun as watching little kids go nuts at a playground; they’ll be running all over in circles playing games that only make sense in their heads but the sheer enjoyment makes it a joy to behold.

Once again, good to be alive.