Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
(300 word minimum).

War is a prominent circumstance that affects our lives and our past. It affects different households and tears up the families within them. I understand the feeling one can have when a person they love must go to war from personal experience. When a close relative has to participate in war, confusion and strife can occur in a family. My father is in the Army Reserved. After being deployed in 2003, he missed my last two years in middle school. After getting me through the trials of the last three years of high school freshman, sophomore and junior year, he was prepped to be deployed again to miss my senior year. His life hangs in the balance of the government and his assignment. He’s unsure of his leave and whether he can visit me for Christmas. He missed Thanksgiving. He missed my Student Government Association Installation Ceremony. He’ll miss my honor roll assemblies. He’ll miss me finding my perfect dress for Prom. He won’t get to deliver me to the hands of my escort for Prom. He doesn’t even know if he will get the leave for my graduation. Though I know he will be there no matter what, I think about the tremendous affect war has had on my life. My mom died when I was two and my dad has been there for me whenever he could be. Still, when I think of the times he wasn’t there for me, it was because he was fighting in a War. War is important to me because it solidifies America’s independence and continuation of liberty. If it wasn’t for war and the U/S. Government, I know many things I take for granted would cease to exist. It’s just that sometimes I wish my father didn’t have to take part. Someone once said, “What you fight for shows who you really are.” That makes so much sense to me because my daddy has always taught me to be my own person and fight for what I believe in. He believes in freedom and liberty. That’s what he is fighting for. That’s why war is important to me.