For the seventh day of 30 Days of Me challenge, I’m supposed to show a picture of who or what has had the biggest impact on me. What is it with all these pictures?

Obviously, my parents had a huge impact on me — especially for the first eighteen years of my life. But, honestly, that was thirty-three years ago. Of course, I didn’t cease all contact and they didn’t quit impacting my life when I went away to college at 18 and moved off to work full-time at nineteen. But, they laid the foundation. You saw their picture yesterday.

Twenty-eight of those last thirty-three years were spent in the Air Force, so that, clearly had a significant impact upon me. But I concentrated on not “drinking the Kool-Aid” during that whole time, because I didn’t want to be completely assimilated. I hear stories of retirees in military retirement homes who have not left the military behind them, and I shudder at the idea of living out my last days in that kind of rank-conscious environment. I’m very thankful the VA doesn’t worry about my rank. They just treat me. The person. I’m a veteran worthy of respect. As it should be.

I won’t deny the Air Force had a tremendous impact upon me. I enlisted for education and a job. By the time I retired, I was serving for something more. I once had a boss who believed everyone should be serving out of love of their country and for only that reason, but I knew that’s not how many people begin. People come to the military for a variety of reasons — some which are never stated publicly — but I hope the leadership instills that patriotism and love of country that grows with service for many.

If we’re looking for a place that inspired me, we need to look no further than the image below, courtesy of NSA.gov. I was inspired every day I drove up to this building, parked in the parking lot, and went in to work from Feb 1989 – May 1992. But impact? Maybe not.

I have to credit my ex-husband with having a large impact upon me. He taught me how to drive a standard shift automobile and a motorcycle. I learned a lot of “wrenching” stuff from him. He’s the one who suggested the military as an option and convinced me it wasn’t what I saw and heard on the nightly news while I was growing up. I never should have married him, but he deserves credit for those things.

My current husband has been in my life in some way, shape, or form since 1985, so that’s another long-term impact player. I wanted to spend more time with him, so I applied for Officer Training School and was accepted (no, that was not the reason I gave for applying to OTS). He (and the bigger paycheck — that was not the stated reason either) is the reason I put myself through that really annoying time. I didn’t lie on the application, but I didn’t discuss the factors that didn’t interest the selection board, either. You saw his photo a couple of days ago.