Still somewhere between REM and consciousness, I rolled over at 6:00 a.m. this morning, trying to make sense of the sound I heard and buried my head deeper into the pillow.
Finally I remembered what the sound was and stuck my hand out, hoping I'd randomly find the STOP button on my phone's alarm. Having gone to bed only six hours before, I was groggy and needed a hot shower to bring me to life so I could drive my little sister to the airport.
My little sister, Cheryl, boarded a plane this morning to Doha, Qatar. That's pronounced kuh-tar, not like cutter, as I recently learned. After a brief layover, she'll head to the Southern hemisphere of the planet, to the capital city of Indonesia: Jakarta. Once she lands, she will remain there for the next three years, doing something or other for the U.S. Navy.
I'm noting for the record that the reason I had to take her to the airport this morning at such a god-awful hour was because she booked her rental car at Reagan, not realizing her flight was at Dulles. But, as noted in a previous blog, sometimes getting up early is worth it.
Sometimes.
Cheryl has been living outside of Seattle, Washington and before that Key West, Florida for the past ten or fifteen years. For a long time, she worked on jets and helicopters, calibrating and installing meters and parts and electrical equipment. Our dad is a mechanic so I suppose we each picked up a bit of his technical savvy.
She's been on a few deployments, sailing the seas and visiting far-flung corners of the Earth. I've gotten her messages from all over the world, always curious where she'd call from next.
When I got married in 2021, she unfortunately couldn't make it as her ship deployed the week before and they wouldn't make an exception for her, so we got a cardboard cutout of her made so I could have pictures of her at my wedding.
We've each walked our own path - sometimes more literally than figuratively, going "off the map" a bit as we've stubbornly forged ahead. Sometimes the path hasn't panned out and we've had to turn tail and get back on track - sometimes we've discovered something new and come through the other side. (We get our trailblazing from our mother.)
For the past few months, though, she lived just a few miles away from me in Alexandria as she was temporarily assigned to training courses at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling.
In these few months, we got to spend more time together than we have in many years. The most time, in fact, since my senior year of high school in 2004 - her freshman year. At that time, like many brothers and sisters, we had vastly different friend groups, views on life and, most importantly, different tastes in music.
We've gotten to learn a lot about each other recently, over dinners and outings in the city. Having lived in small rural and coastal towns, she'd never taken city transit before, so we took the Metro into D.C. to get her used to it.
This past weekend we spent twelve hours in a car together driving to North Carolina and back to visit our family before her trip.
We've gotten to fill in a lot of blanks and tell stories that neither of us knew about each other.
I learned that she stole my car one time in high school. I'm not exactly sure how, because my car was my symbol of freedom and I was rarely not in it. But she apparently took it for a joy ride - as a FRESHMAN - around the block. It was returned safely, I suppose, though I seem to remember a new scratch around that time...
After nearly twenty years apart, it has been pretty striking to learn how similar we have turned out.
We can both drive a stick shift. We both like the outdoors and exploring new places. Technical know-how comes naturally to us, and we're not afraid to get our hands dirty.
Well, her more than me - I prefer clean hands.
After fifteen years of service, it was time for a change for Cheryl. Like my decision to leave the for-profit world and get into nonprofit, she is about to start a whole new job, albeit still in the Navy, but in a very different capacity. Both of us were catalyzed to career changes by similar events - bad bosses - and we made decisions to better our lives.
I'm looking forward to hearing what's next for my little sister. Three years in a new country is life-changing for someone. I currently manage a fellowship program where our fellows spend two years abroad, immersing themselves in a new culture. The fellows' experience is almost always transformative and affects their lives in meaningful ways.
Though she has been all around the world, her next three years is going to be incomparable, and not without challenges.
As one of our fellows prepares to head out to their destination we give them a handbook of expectations and guidelines for their trip. One of the bigger sections is regarding "morale" of the fellow. The section essentially states that no matter how well-adjusted, experienced, and enthusiastic a person may be, they are almost certain to be affected by "culture shock" and at some point it is likely that their spirits may fall.
I have no doubt that Cheryl will experience this. I have no doubt she can overcome it and come to experience the next part, which, according to our handbook, is when fellows become as "euphoric as when they started out, and might not want to come home."
Like we each always have, she'll forge her own path - this time in a different time zone and a different hemisphere.
It's 11:49 p.m. and she just texted from Qatar, "I think I landed in the Fifth Element."
One more flight to go!
I salute you, little sister.
Don't forget your Multi-Pass.
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