When I was seventeen I made a rather large decision...a commitment...a commitment that I am just now seeing the end of.  I had no money for college but got decent grades in high school and somehow found myself at the Naval Academy in the Summer of 1996.  The next four years of my life were consumed by a rather non-standard college experience.  I finished up there and spent a few months attending random training schools before stepping onboard USS JOHN PAUL JONES in April of 2001.  Two and a half years later the entire crew shifted over to USS HIGGINS and I spent six more months there, completing my tour in April of 2004.  I've spent the last two years as a naval instructor at a base on top of Point Loma in San Diego, and that brings me to today.  I will be getting out of the Navy in 13 days and my future is an uncertain one, but that's a good thing, I think.  I will hopefully pass my Real Estate Broker's exam on June 14th and am planning on working part time at Rockler Woodworking when I return from my motorcycle trip at the end of July.  My girlfriend is moving to San Diego from Santa Rosa in August, which will be great.  Long distance relationships are hard for whatever length of time.  I'm looking forward to working on my house, working on music, working on woodworking....that seems like a lot of working, but that's what I enjoy.  A new life is ahead of me and I'm ready for the change.  My last 10 years in the Navy and at the Academy have been good ones.  I've learned an amazing amount.  I've been able to do and see much more than most of my peers.  I've flown helicopters and turbo props, performed a simulated-emergency surfacing from 600 feet underwater to the ocean's surface in a Ballistic Missile Submarine, jumped off the sail planes of that same submarine and gone swimming somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean,  dived off the back of JOHN PAUL JONES into the Pacific, fired all sorts of cool guns for training, ridden scooters at 25mph on the highway in Hawaii (one of my smarter moments), worn a shower cap out in public in Singapore with my friend Andy (they didn't quite know what to do with us there), jumped off waterfalls in Australia, scuba dived in Guam and on the Great Barrier Reef, navigated HIGGINS back through the Great Barrier Reef on our way home from deployment, enjoyed 160°F heat index temperatures in the Gulf, visited all sorts of foreign ports and worked with some amazing people...and now it's time to say move on.  Good memories and great opportunities.  I hope the next ten years of my life are just as eventful...just with less nights spent on watch.