100 Days

At my daughters’ school (and surely elementary schools around the globe) the 100th day of school is kind of a big deal. They normally glance back at what they have done over the year, acknowledge how much they have grown and learned, and of course there is a party. I have found that grammar school is in a perpetual state of cupcake frenzy and forever looking for a reason to celebrate with frosty delights. I guess this is something that kind of carries over into adulthood. I mean who among us has not worked at a job where there is a person virtually assigned to discover the birthdays of co-workers so that we can meet in the break-room for cake to celebrate “Bob’s” birthday. No one really cares about Bob, but everyone loves cake. It’s kind of strange isn’t it? I have on more than one occasion known I was merely an excuse, a segue if you will, to “cake”.

Today is a very different type of 100th day; it is the 100th day of our current deployment. To be honest I didn’t really give it a lot of thought. I noticed last night that it was coming but I didn’t feel the need to bring any great recognition or celebratory response to its arrival. What would be the point? I would love to say that I feel some sense of accomplishment in how far we have come, but we are barely a quarter of the way done. To know that although we have done 100 days and we still have at least 265 still to go, well that is daunting to say the least.

But, today was a good day regardless of the reminders as to how long a year truly is. Today was also summer solstice – the longest day of the year. In Alaska that means up to 24 full hours of sunlight. In Anchorage things are not quite that extreme, but it still means nearly 19.5 hours of glorious daylight. And as much as I hate to cross this tipping point in the seasons, there was something akin to relief in crossing that threshold. Kind of like reaching the top of the mountain and finally starting back down the other side. Of course there is no real logic in this line of thinking. Yes, the days will begin to get shorter tomorrow, but in December when we still have 3 months to go we will start back uphill again in terms of solar measurement.

To celebrate solstice, the girls (minus 1 – our oldest is a camp this week – more details about this later) and I had a fun-filled day that included the library, the track, the pool and concluded with a hike and picnic. Overall, it was a very good day. However, I was reminded of the potential irony in my uphill downhill assessment of a deployment as I nursed an IT band injury on our hike. I have been stubbornly ignoring and running through a stressed IT band in my left leg for several weeks now…okay probably at least 2 months. My brother – the runner – tells me the only answer is to stop running until it heals. The thing is I don’t want to stop running, so I haven’t. I have cut way back which I thought was helping, that is until the 2 mile uphill hike today. The thing is, with every step up, each one slightly more aggravating than the last, I knew I would have to make an additional step back down. And for anyone who has ever had a problem with an IT band I think it is pretty universal that “down” is actually far worse than “up”.

So where does this leave me with my theory? Up was hard, but the view and the accomplishment from the top made it well worth it. Down was horrible and with no reward other than being done. What does this mean about deployment? Perhaps there isn’t even any real correlation. But I think there might be. The first half is really hard, but the second half may be even harder because even though you’ve reached the top, the distance back down is just as far. But here I am getting WAY ahead of myself. We are only halfway up the mountain – far too early to start thinking about the trek back down. 100 days. That does sound like something though doesn’t it? Yes, I think it is. I think perhaps I should be more excited, feel more accomplished. Maybe I will make cupcakes and we will celebrate.