Over There

I got a phone call last night I was not expecting. It was ZL calling to tell me that in a few short weeks he was being sent to Iraq.

The first time I met ZL we didn't hit it off. It was while I was in Cleveland, we were at a meeting and I was busy talking to a bunch of friends I hadn't seen for awhile. He came up and just started talking to me. No introduction, nothing. I only knew what his name was because of his nametag. That has always bothered me. I don't like strange people coming up and talking to me, butting into my conversations, without some sort of introduction. And I didn't agree with some of the things he was interjecting anyway. I thought he was rude, loud, and annoying and tried to get away from him as quickly as possible.

A little over a month later I was transferred to work in Youngstown and guess who would also be working out of that office? You guessed it, ZL. Not only would we be co-workers, but he was my superior and I had to report to him. Great. That's just great. I was not looking forward to that in the least. But over the next few weeks we became amazingly good friends. ZL's the kind of person you either love or hate, there was no middle ground with him. As I got to know him I really started to like him. He was big and intimidating to some but to me he was just a big teddy bear. He would listen to me when I was having a bad day and sympathize and try to do something to fix it. Which is not something that most guys do. He helped me through a lot of crazy things in Youngstown and I will forever be grateful for that.

We don't see each other very often now. We're both married and he and his wife are expecting their first child, but we are still very good friends. I pray for his safety and for his family left behind. If you had told me when I first met ZL that one day I would be sad to see him go I would have thought you were crazy. But I am.

Godspeed, ZL.