Friday and Saturday are going to be very difficult days.
I’ve probably built a dozen or so ribbon racks over my career. Many of them have been for some somber occasion or another. It’s a very contemplative process for me. I spend those minutes pondering the upcoming occasion, in this case remembering a friend lost. I also contemplate what each ribbon represents from my career. The deployments, reenlistments, units, experiences and trials that have shaped me so thoroughly over almost twelve years. It’s not often that those two trains of thought are so closely intermingled, but that makes the practice that much more cathartic.
On a side note, I’ve always noticed that, since I build two racks every time, one always turns out so much better than the other. Weird how that works.