The Decision

To those who have had to decide It was early, that spring morning I fled. Waving, crying, and mouthing I love you, Mom and Sis standing there, the tears they shed. Eighteen, young, naive, and without a clue I would later learn to miss them badly, while feeling melancholy on my own. But now, the bus starting forward slowly, my heart breaking, leaving them all alone. I was so overcome with excitement, not realizing that the life I had known was now ending with that one commitment. Nor thought I of the life they faced at home. A painful decision young men must make, life, or remain behind for other’s sake