Gonna be a Gamecock

Today I was asked the question, "Do you want to go back to Afghanistan?" Are you kidding me? Absolutely not!!! The person who asked me just could not understand why I did not want to go back. Apparently, she had a "good" deployment to Iraq. She acted as if I was a little crazy to be taken aback by her question. It was kind of an uncomfortable exchange. But, it got me thinking about things... mainly life after deployment.

With this in mind, I am starting a new blog entitled "Life After Afghanistan". My blog while I was deployed to Bagram, Afghanistan in 2010 became quite popular. I was astounded by how many people read it. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. People seemed enlightened to a certain degree about what it is like for a doctor in Afghanistan treating the wounded. Some people actually wanted more. One person told me that she was disappointed when I stopped writing. She felt like I left her hanging. Other people wanted me to get the blog published as a book. I thought about that long and hard. But, my heart never seemed to be into that idea. It would take a lot of time and effort to publish a book. It just did not seem right for me. Instead I decided today to just start writing again. Why? Because life goes on after the war. It has to go on and we have to move forward. This blog will not be as dramatic as "On Call in Afghanistan". But, it might be just as important for me. It might help me to make more sense of my experiences.

It seems like I have been decompressing ever since I landed back in the states on July 2nd, 2010. I had completed 2 difficult deployments of 6 months duration in a little over 2 years. It is a lot to process. Each day seems like I am just a little further away from the insanity of war. The images are still very real, but they are fading. As time goes on, I think about what happened over there just a little less with each day. This is normal. Other people that have been to Afghanistan tell me they have similar experiences. Some people never really face the demons that haunt them from war. I am not going to be like that. NO WAY! Life is too good to allow garbage from the past bring us down. I try each day to live in the moment. The present seems a little more important now that I have seen death and destruction up close and personal.

In the summer and fall of 2010, I began working on my life after the military. I decided on my way home from Afghanistan that I was going to apply for a fellowship in sports medicine. I have always been a sports fanatic. The opportunity to work with athletes and be involved with athletic teams really, really gets me excited. Fellowships in primary care sports medicine (the non surgical care of athletes) last one year. I interviewed at 5 places in the fall. During that time, I also decided 100% that my military career would be over when my committment expires on June 30th, 2011. I "dropped my papers" and was approved for what is called separating from the military. It seems a bit surreal, but in the not too distant future I will no longer be wearing a uniform. That actually sounds amazing!

What is even better is that in January I found out that I will be doing a fellowship at the University of South Carolina starting July 1st. GO GAMECOCKS! I am pumped! I will be part of the medical staff at a major university. I will be down on the field in front of 85,000 fans on football saturdays. I will be working with the 2010 national champs in baseball. The athletic department at the Univeristy of South Carolina is quite impressive... 500 student athletes, 19 teams, 24 athletic trainers, 26 million dollar budget just for football, etc. The facilities are excellent. Even better, the people are friendly and genuine. I immediately felt comfortable and at home there. It is going to be quite a year for me in Columbia, South Carolina.

What is even more important about all this is knowing that I am NOT going back to Afghanistan. Yeah, it is a struggle to make sense of the world and to achieve "normalcy" after some really intense experiences. But, I will get there. After all, I am GONNA BE A GAMECOCK! (at least for one year)