Thankful Thursday

Know Your Medal of Honor Recipients:

Sergeant James M. Elson (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on May 22, 1863 at Vicksburg, Mississippi. His citation reads:

Carried the colors in advance of his regiment and was shot down while attempting to plant them on the enemy's works.

Private Edwin L. Elwood (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on October 20, 1869 at Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona. His citation reads:

Gallantry in action.

Captain Andrew H. Embler (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on October 27, 1864 at Boydton Plank Road, Virginia. His citation reads:

Charged at the head of 2 regiments, which drove the enemy's main body, gained the crest of the hill near the Burgess house and forced a barricade on the Boydton road.


Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for my friends Jeremy and KC. Both of them have a birthday coming up this Saturday. Jeremy will be 34 and KC will still be younger than the oldest pitcher to win a Major League Baseball game. Really, these guys have no one to blame but themselves for the fact that we are friends. I made it through my first year at Winthrop making only one friend… so I’m pretty confident in the fact that making friends isn’t something I am good at. Anyway, I met Jeremy during the 1998 Fall Semester at Winthrop. We lived on the same hall and I had decided to pledge Kappa Sigma (Jeremy was already a Brother). He went out of his way to hang out with me and make me feel welcomed. Honestly, I’m sure I’ve gotten more out of the friendship over the years than he has… He’s able to give me directions to anywhere (to the point that I named my GPS “Jeremy”), he texts/emails/calls me with any major Winthrop news and, perhaps most importantly, he gives me someone to talk to when we’re out in public with people I don’t know (or don’t know well). All I’ve done for him is let him know that if I ever found myself in a position of power (President of the US… or head of a crime family) he would be taken care of (in a good way… not in a kill him kind of way). Let’s face it… Jeremy lived with me during college (what I like to call my Wilderness Years). He knows things about me that would make a hardened criminal blush, yet we’re still friends. And for that, I am thankful. I have not known KC as long as I’ve known Jeremy, yet I feel like I’ve known him longer than I have. Like Jeremy, KC is completely to blame for us being friends. I give KC a hard time for his age, but that’s only because I find it hard to believe he’s really that old. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s a couple of years older than me (he’s not… unless you are willing to completely ignore the definition of “a couple”). It is uncommon for me to feel comfortable with someone so fast, but that’s how it was with KC. I believe I first met him at his wedding to LA (I was one of the people saying, “He’s HOW old? And she’s only… WOW! Is he rich?”). How highly do I think of KC? I wrote a paper about him for one of my MBA papers. Back in my pre-I’m just sayin… days, I was still writing crazy stuff and talking highly of myself, it’s just instead of doing it here I was doing it in emails sent to KC, Danny and Jenn. KC has proven to be a great friend and I am thankful for that.