The circle is complete, the student has now become the master.

This place is weird you don't want to bond with people because you all are on different schedules and people come and go. Also I like to stay emotionally detached from my co-workers just works out better professionally plus this is a real here one moment, gone the next. I've been blessed that the people around me have been safe and guys like Winter, and Ricky Schroeder made it home safe and sound. Conversely, you do bond with people here faster here than you would at home because you don't have a choice. We are all working together for our mutual survival. So you are close but still distant.

Well, I just dropped off Shen Long at the LZ, he is on his way home in the near future and this is the last time I'll see him in theater. It's quite a strange feeling, he has been a mentor and a father figure of sorts while I've been out here and I've often deferred to him in many issues. So my crutch is gone.

But, at the same time that is a good thing. He and I have been at odds for the better part two months. The details of which aren't important let's just say we have different outlook on how things should be done. He is what one would think of as a typical Engineer. He has all the technical skills you could ask for but socially he is a bit awkward for my taste. It's nothing that he does directly it's just the way he is. You ever meet someone who has a personality trait that you can't fucking stand but, it's not something that they are not even aware they are doing so you can't really hold it against them? That Shen.

Me on the other hand, I’m not the sharpest stick in the bunch but, I can figure it out and on top of that I'm empathic. I am someone that can wade through bullshit to see what people are really thinking. I'm more social; I'm smart enough to know that the average Marine doesn't want a lecture of the OSI model (Application, Presentation, Session, Transport, Network, Data Link, and Physical I mean duh, WHO doesn't know that?) they just want to know if you can get the kill button working again. I depend more on the network and he depends more on his technical expertise.

Plus there have been times where he attacked my integrity and that is a major no-no. The Captian and Ken have both had to really play ref in some situations. With Ken gone it's been a bit harder to stand down.

At any rate his style and mine have clashed for a while.

Even with that hell, he represented the familiar and the stable. It was like living in an abusive house. There was a lot of yelling at home but fuck, at least you had a home. So there is a part of me that is glad he is gone because I know a lot of his stress was caused by being in a war zone and if anyone needed to get the hell out he topped my list. He was suffering from shellshock, plus I can run my show. But, there is another part that is a little bit sad. I mean everyone needs a battle buddy.

The only thing consistent is change.