Tonight is special for my little family. By this time tomorrow the family that's always been six people will become five. We're really not losing someone, they'll just no longer be living under one roof, and won't be for the next 24 months.
The same thing happened to me back in January 1985. I remember some aspects of the night before I left on my two-year call. Was I excited? I think so. Was I nervous? Probably. I knew I was scared to learn a new language and and worried that when I was to arrive in the country in two months that no one would understand me (which pretty much happened...).
I wonder how my mother and sister felt as we loaded up my two pieces of luggage and we drove sixty or so miles south where me and hundreds of other nineteen-year old men and twenty-one-year old women said goodbye to our families. Were they sad? I'm sure they were. Were they nervous? Definitely. Were they excited. I hope so.
So, in three decades if and/or when my son wonders what his family did the night before he left, he'll be able to look back on this (who knows if these blogs will survive three decades?) and know that he and his family played Uno.
What a great way to spend the evening!
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