“You know I like my chicken fried/ A cold beer on a Friday night/ A pair of jeans that fit just right/ And the radio up.”

The lively beat of the song “Chicken Fried” by the Zac Brown Band blared through the car speakers. All the windows were down and the sun warmed my arm, which rested outside my car as I drove down the highway.

I had listened to this song hundreds of times without a single thought about what it was saying other than that Americans love beer and fried chicken, but as I sang along in the car, the final words hit me for the first time.

“Salute the ones who died. The ones that give their lives so we don’t have to sacrifice all the things we love.”

Since 2001 American troops have been fighting overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. When the war in Iraq began I was too young to understand the effects and severity of war, and still today the idea of war is blurred with statistics and numbers my brain cannot possibly fathom. But within the last year the war has pushed itself into my life, and I have been forced to take note of its powerful impact.

As many of my friends turn 18, I have come face to face with one of the seemingly less acknowledged of the rights people gain when they become a legal adult: enlisting in the Marine Corps.

Having a friend enlist in the Marines has been an overwhelmingly emotional experience, one that I was not equipped to handle. At first I thought it was a joke, a nightmare that would eventually end once I woke up. However, after watching a friend go though rigorous workouts and training programs, the whole process became real.

One day he could be standing behind a machine gun shooting at real people. There may be shots fired at him. He might kill someone. He may never come home.

He sees the Marines as a brotherhood: an elite group of people dedicated to defending people’s rights. Though I have a deep respect for him, I selfishly want nothing more than for him to remain here, to go to college, get a job, and start a family.

With this new personal connection I find myself even more conflicted about how I feel about involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. After 11 years the war that had seemed like a distant memory, blurred and clouded, but it is now right in front of me.

Since 2001, 6,215 troops have died overseas, over 45,000 wounded – and day by day, these numbers continue to rise.

To me this death toll is no longer just a statistic. I now see the numbers as my friends, my neighbors, and my peers. No longer is the war something I can isolate myself from – I am now part of it.

But I’m only now becoming part of it, eleven years after it started. Why did it take me so long to realize the seriousness of the war?

I didn’t know how it felt which like many which caused me never to understand the severity of war. It seems that many people today overlook important issues because it doesn’t have a direct impact to them on a personal level.

From the war, to politics, to the national debt, many of us choose to ignore major issues – that is until it becomes personally applicable to us. We often don’t truly know how we feel about serious issues until they affect us directly.

But what would happen if we took the time to think about issues on a broader scheme? What if we took the time to put ourselves in the shoes of others and see it from their point of view?

Now that I understand a little better, I know in the future I am going to try and look at difficult situations in differnt lights. I am just one person, but what if everyone did the same?