Here’s Hoping He Finds Love

The conversation with our son, Michael, started about two months ago, over the phone one Sunday morning when he called us. He called us. A busy college student-athlete with a full-time job, he never calls us. Especially on a Sunday morning after what, we assume, would have been a fun Saturday night. Text? Yes, he texts. But never calls. And even the texts are abbreviated: Yeah. No. Working r-n can’t talk. DK. … I think you get it. 

So when he called and ended up speaking with us for two hours one Sunday morning, you know it’s something big. And it was.

Michael told us that he’s seriously considering enlisting in the military. He’s in his fifth year of school, about to graduate with his MBA, Finance concentration. So we were all set on sending him off into the wild blue yonder of Corporate America — not the scary space of armed forces. While Corporate America can be scary too, they don’t carry weapons.

The two-hour conversation started with Michael just saying the words out loud to us: “I want to enlist. I’ve thought about this for a long time and can’t think of anything else I want to do more. I can’t think of anything else that I’d be more proud of becoming.” 

The remainder of the one hour and fifty-five-minute call was spent with my husband Mike and I trying to talk Michael out of it. Shame on us. But his call and conversation came out of the blue and that was our first instinct.

But for every argument we had, Michael had some pretty well-considered counters. It was obvious that he had thought about this for a long time. We were just the last to learn. And given our reaction, I guess it makes sense he held off on dropping this news.

The branch of service Michael is considering is Army, where both his grandfathers served. While we were still on the phone, he texted us web pages, video and podcast links providing information about the Army. He was pretty well prepared in support of his case. Maybe he could be a corporate lawyer instead of military? I digress.

So, we have been digesting this news for two months, initially researching everything we could about the U.S. military: branches of service (which might be more safe for him?), requirements for enlisting, training camps, ranks, pay grades … you name it, we researched it. The end result was an 8-page Word document (complete with hyperlinked references), summarizing everything we learned and listing all the questions we still had.

After texting the doc to Michael, he replied with his thanks … and came back immediately with quick answers to most of our questions. He’d done his research too. 

As of now, it looks like this remains Michael’s decided path. There has been no talking him out of it. In fact, it feels very much to us like this is a genuine calling for him. While proud, we’re still trying to catch up to his level of courage in accepting this future for him.

Michael’s plan is to graduate with his MBA in a few short weeks then, like any other grad, speak to the hiring folks and secure his contract of employment (or enlistment). 

My husband’s perspective: “Look, don’t get upset. He didn’t sign anything yet. Heck, he could end up meeting a new girl this weekend, find true love … and this whole shipping-off-into-the-military bet is off.” 

He half smiled; was half kidding. But deep down, we both sense Michael’s level of commitment to this future path and figure he won’t open himself up to that right now.

But still — and you can’t blame a mom for wishful thinking — here’s hoping he finds love.