Well, the Christmas break was great, but way too short.  As the realization set in that I was back at Ft. Dix, my travel-weary mind kept wandering back home.  The warmth, the privileges, the freedom, but mostly the closeness to the ones I truly love and care for…my family.  The most difficult part of a deployment to me is not being around my family and friends, the ones who are there when I need them, or just to hang out and kill time.  I forgot how different life on the other side of an Army post is, even after such a short time.  I am almost a completely different person at home than I am when I’m doing Army stuff.  As Brad had to start transforming back into Specialist Richardson, travelling to Birmingham, Chicago, Philadelphia, then Ft. Dix, New Jersey on only a couple hours of sleep, I got pretty down.  I wrapped my head around this idea that I was going to be miserable back here and didn’t think I was going to be able to get out of the funk for a while.  Well, being at home I had forgotten what it’s like to be in the 314th, even after only a short time.  They are like a family, maybe a dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless.  There are the ones that are there when you need to laugh, or you need to get something off your chest, or if you just need help with something.  The soldiers in this unit have become like a second family, the family that I’ll be living and working with for the next year.  I know it sounds cheesy, but it is true, we’ve banded together pretty tightly over the past few months.  Of course, just like any family there will be disagreements (can’t wait to see who blows up  first, haha).  But, if I have to go to Iraq, there is no other unit I’d rather go with.