The Life and Times of Adam Hinds

The one chance I get to try and check my stuff on the Navy Advancement Center, and it’s down. Thanks a lot. Now I have to wait God knows how long to get another chance to check my stuff. Thanks so much, oh glorious Navy technology.

I do, however, know that I did not advance off this cycle (200). Maybe next time?

…wouldn’t you think it would be warmer than this?

As we approach thanksgiving ‘08, I wanted to take a moment to say ‘happy thanksgiving’ to all who visit adamhinds.net and to all my friends and family. I am sorry I cannot be home for thanksgiving this year, and will not be home next year either, but I am thinking about all of you every day. With just under two months left of this deployment, I hope to see most of you soon. God bless. Happy thanksgiving. With that being said, I’d like to say what I am thankful for.

What is Adam thankful for?

…I’m so glad you asked. I’m thankful for a lot of things. I’m thankful for my family, my friends, my wife and I’m thankful that I can take all the little things for granted. Sometimes I can be pessimistic and ungrateful for what I have. I’m thankful that I have the luxury of doing that. Because all things considered, I have a pretty awesome life. I have the best parents a spoiled ass white boy could ask for, the best group of friends and family anyone could ask for, and the most amazing wife on the planet. All things considered, God has truly blessed me, and I don’t really know why. I suppose that’s some food for my own thoughts. Once again, happy thanksgiving. Now don’t forget about me on black friday.

Over the past few years I’ve noticed some things when it comes to friendship and I’d like to take a moment to point them out. Friendship is temporary. Nothing lasts forever, and this sucks. Out of the many friends I had in school and since, I only keep in touch regularly with two people: Buster and Donny. this is because Buster, Donny and I have purposely made it a point to make our friendship with one another survive, no matter what distance, or what personal ordeals are going on in our lives. It has survived through my deployments, living in three separate states (Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia), two (soon to be three) marriages, one divorce, and numerous other occurrences that some marriages couldn’t even survive. I am proud of this because I know I have two friends that I will always have, no matter what. It’s sad that not all of my friendships could be this way. I’ve had some great friends in the past, some of which I considered at one point the person to be my very best friend. But as time goes on, people drift away and move on. This fucking sucks. Some friendships I am talking about in particular are those I had with Amy, Corey, Josh, Amber, Patrick, Jaima, Erica, Andy, Michael, Megan, Magen, Shawn, and Jina. At one point I considered these people to be the most influential and important people in my life, maybe even slightly more so than Buster and Donny. But with time came distance, and life has a way of tearing people apart. Sometimes I think back and say, “fuck, if only I had tried harder to keep in touch, we may still be as close as we were then…” but then I stop myself and decide not to dwell on the past and learn to accept that what was once a great friendship full of numerous wonderful, embarrassing, and bad memories alike had been dwindled down to nothing more than a picture and a name on my Facebook or MySpace profile and an occasional wall comment to the liking of “hey, how are you? You got married, oh that’s cool, I’m married to. Talk to you again in three more fucking years.” I mean FUCK ME man, these people were important to me. Some of these people were a reason to get up in the morning. I would go to school or church or go on watch just to see these people and for no other reason. These people were the fucking world to me. And now this is what has become of our friendship? “Would you like to accept Adam Hinds as a friend on Facebook?” Fuck you.

Now I’m married to the most wonderful girl I have ever met. I love her more than any other person period. She’s everything to me. And I’ve heard people say once you get married you begin to lose touch with your friends. To them I say, fuck you. I still keep what I have with Buster and Donny, and what I have with Glenn. Glenn and I met on my first ship, USS Stump, and have been great friends ever since, even through me being stationed in Japan and San Diego and him in Hawaii. Again, because we worked our fucking asses off at keeping our friendship together. The same way Buster, Donny, and I did. And I can’t help but think to myself, is this because I value friendship more than the other people I cared about do? Or is it that I have a hard time accepting change or letting go? I don’t fucking know. I realize I can’t do anything about the way friendships have dissolved, but at the very least I found the obligation to acknowledge that it’s fucked up how things turn out through this post. I just wish things didn’t have to turn out the way they did. And I’m sure as life goes on and I make more friends, the same thing will happen. I don’t blame anyone for it, I just wish it didn’t have to be that way. One thing is for sure: friendship is NOT forever, but me being the kind of “against the grain” person that, I am, I am sure gonna try to make it that way if I think it’s worth it. Maybe it’s not to late? Or maybe it is. Who knows. Now I’m rambling, so I will shut up. Till next time.