Ok, I think I may be a bad person. I’ve never had a real opinion on the war. I just knew that I felt bad about our troops being there. I didn’t like innocent people dying or sending more troops over to fix other nation’s problems. I’ll admit that, so far, the war never had an affect me…until August.

In August, my 22-year-old brother decided to join the United States Army. It was at that point I started worrying about the war because now, my brother was a part of it. At first it wasn’t bad. He was gone a couple weeks for basic training, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.

I went to Fort Benning Georgia over Christmas break to see his boot camp graduation, only when I got there I couldn’t find my brother. I couldn’t find the little six-foot, 125-pound guy with an afro. I couldn’t find the guy who use to yell at me for liking the same bands as him, or stealing his friends.

Instead, I found a whole new brother, a 165-pound man with no hair. I found a soldier. I found someone that was finally proud of the direction his life has taken. I looked over and saw my family, especially my mom, in tears because she no longer saw her baby, but a grown man.

It was at that exact moment, that I changed my mind on the war. I was OK with our troops being in Iraq, or any other overseas country, because they are trying to restore order. They are trying to give people their country back, as well as a sense of pride in one another. I figured, in my opinion, if one Iraqi family could experience the pride I felt seeing my brother, then our troops did their jobs.

From now on, I won’t be that bad person. I won’t be the person with no opinion on the war because Tuesday I got a phone call that changed my life. I remember the exact words that my brother said.

“Meagan, I’m going to Korea. I’ll see you in a year.”