Hey all,

I got some good help on this board last year (though the post seems to have disappeared, I guess cause I didn't immediately deal with the groupee email in, oh, December was it?) so I thought I'd come back with another question.

I spent the end of last week in Georgia with my husband and parents, watching my youngest brother graduate at Fort Benning (infantry, on to airborne now). When the graduation speech came to the part where you hear about the change your soldier went through during basic, we all looked at each other and smiled, because our soldier did no such thing. He was Soldier Boy before he left and he's the same guy now. So we thought that was funny.

But I was thinking a lot on the way home (a drive from GA to PA gives you loooots of time to think) and suddenly, even though my brother really hadn't changed, I _saw_ him differently. He's a good guy. Not that I didn't think so before, but he was always my kid brother before, you know? But all those things the army's supposed to teach you, like integrity and honour and responsibility and all that stuff... it was all there. I could see it, looking back, in spite of the fact that he hid it very well under a mask of smart comments and, say, not considering dirty dishes a very important fact of life.

So I've kind of been wanting to talk to somebody about this revelation ever since, but it's not easy. We're not the type of family that talks about that sort of thing. And then I thought, "Gee, if I want to tell somebody this so bad... maybe I should just tell him? Smart people who know about this stuff say it's good to share affirm-y good type things with people you care about."

However, I believe the last letter I sent him in basic consisted of four Penny Arcade strips, a description of this weird Korean horror film I was watching while writing the letter, and a spiel about how Caboose is totally awesome. The last conversation we had before he left for basic was over AIM, and consisted entirely of us calling each other names like "raving lunatic" "monkey butt" "michael moore lover" and "Enron CEO." So while I would really like to send this letter, part of me is also thinking it might seem kinda weird, just for being out of the ordinary.

What do you all think? Should I say something abnormally meaningful, or just stick with the goofy?

My mom and dad sends cards to me with little notes/church bulletins inside. One year they're funny, the next serious/religious.

Try an "I'm proud of you" card and stick a note saying how much you love him (the serious part) and miss bossing him around (the funny part). It's amazing the selection the dollar store and the 99 cent section of Hallmark have.

My family never was much into the "snail mail". My father was in the Navy, brother in the Air Force, and my sister and I Soldiers in the Army. Anything in the mail made me feel good...heck, even a letter from one of my buddies telling me how much trouble they're in and miss me. Out of all the letters and package I had received...I distinctly remembered two. One that my father had written stating how proud he was to have me as a daughter and another from my oldest sister saying how proud she was of me as well. I don't have too much memorabilia, but I did manage to keep the two letters.