Opposite Day

I am fully aware that Garret has been through a lot of stress and training that  I would not want to know the details about.  He is probably tired and weary but I will confess that his time away has made him kind of the opposite of how I thought he would be.
We got another letter yesterday and with each one there is increasing "I love you" and "I miss you". The most recent one could not have been sweeter. Garret expressed how grateful he is for all his family and what he is thankful for in each of us and especially his dad. He misses calling Rich everyday. He admires him and wants to be just like him. He appreciates how hard he works and how he treats me. Things I knew but when your kids say it there is extra meaning.
Now don't get me wrong, Garret has always had some tenderness but it was buried deep down and you had to dig for it sometimes. Very Axl on "The Middle". He often walked around without a shirt on and had some of the same mannerisms. We even  called him Axl to his face. This experience has made him so expressive of his feelings and so the opposite of a big, tough soldier.
He also said that he loves what he is doing and is so glad that he has this opportunity. Makes me happy he has no regrets. He has a few more very intense days of basic before he goes onto AIT. They are scheduled to be done late Saturday night after they do recovery which I think has to do with finding all the ammo from the "live fire down range" thing they did. Gulp.
May 29 can't come soon enough when we see him at Graduation.