Sometimes it’s all about your perspective

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Andeelynn Owens
  • 341st Space Wing Public Affairs
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. (AFPN) --  Recently I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing two Malmstrom NCOs who had each been presented the Bronze Star medal for their courageous actions in a war zone. Not only was it amazing to hear of their accounts first-hand, but it was also a time for us to share war stories from our work in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

If you talk to someone who recently returned from a deployment he or she will have a favorite war story to tell and a "biggest lesson learned.” When Master Sgt. Eric Okonski, Tech. Sgt. Daniel Andrews and I sat talking, we agreed on what we considered our “biggest lesson learned” in Iraq and that was simply: perspective, or what really matters.

Let me paint a picture for you.

After more than 16 hours on your feet in 120 degree heat, you flop on your bed exhausted, thanking God that the air conditioning is working. With no immediate plans other than to down a bottle of luke-cold water and log a few hours of sleep before you have to wake up in the morning and put your body armor back on for another 16 hour day, you fall asleep.

About an hour into your slumber you’re jolted awake by the bellowing of the loud speaker screaming for you to take cover because a misled insurgent decided to park his car across the Tigris River and randomly lob mortars at you, your friends and your fellow Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines.

Then you sit quietly in the dark while you listen to mortar rounds land on all sides of you. You just pray that today isn’t your day and try to remember if you told your mom you loved her yesterday on the phone. Now at this point I ask you, what really matters?

From experience I can tell you that by the forth mortar round I had long forgotten about that member of the press I could have been more cordial to the day before, and I didn’t really care that I’d had chicken to eat for the last 60 days and I didn't mind as much that I wasn’t able to check my e-mail the day before. You know what really matters? Waking up in the morning and having your friends still alive beside you.

Why does any of this matter? Because everything in life really comes down to perspective -- the glass half full, half empty cliché. You can stew about things you have to do and then consequently end up with a horrible attitude, or you can step back for a minute and remember that some of our Airmen have been getting shot at.

A friend gave me a list of thoughts to ponder regarding perspective in different avenues of life, but this is by far my favorite: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

It’s really all about your perspective and how you want to embrace life. Think for a minute how much nicer it is to work with someone who approaches life “half full” rather than “half empty” and then decide what legacy you want to leave with those you know.

On the really-rough days, sometimes our attitude is what saves us and gets us through until tomorrow. And just remember that it's all about your perspective.