Jan 07 2009
The girl I wanted to hate
There was this girl at the Naval Academy who I wanted to hate. Funny thing is, we should have been fast friends. The first time I had seen her (kind of) was at a state banquet for incoming Academy freshman. It was the only function of my senior year that my parents gladly attended. I had a malfunctioning contact, so with lopsided vision I saw her from across the room. She was a beautiful blonde in a backless, floor-length sundress.
Fast-forward to senior year at the Naval Academy. My friends and I are sharing margaritas and bottomless chips and salsa. We are gossiping and guffawing about how this particular girl has bible whipped her boyfriend, a popular varsity athlete in our class. Together, the two of them make a sickeningly Ken and Barbie pair.
We sat around throwing back drinks and insulting her ridiculous necessity for faith.
They were married. She died on a training mission. Her body was missing for days in the vast depths of the ocean. When they found her, she was still strapped into the helicopter.
I adored and respected the girl I tried so hard to hate. She was able to achieve things that I had the ability to, but not the willingness. If I had known then what I know now- if I had had the maturity and the capacity to have faith in something, in anything, maybe I wouldn’t have been lost for so long…
