The moon rises over Lafayette, Ind. at 1:15 am March 4, 2013. Viewed from Wood Street West Lafayette, Ind.

Its been a busy semester and I haven’t  been  able to update this as much as I’d like. Here’s some recent photos from Saturday’s Culinary Competition hosted in Purdue’s Union.  

December 18th, 2012 nothing in my day had been anything out of the ordinary.

This way the day I was scheduled to fly home to Manchester out of the Indianapolis Airport, and I was running a bit late for my flight. I arrived at the airport and no one was in line at the Southwest counter and I breezed through security. Running down to my concourse I arrived at my gate then seeing a crowd of people just standing, starring out the window in complete silence. I didn’t know what was going on, there was a plane at the gate and people were disembarking and I continued to look around until I finally saw what everyone was looking at. It was a group of soldiers in formation awaiting a casket of one of their fallen brethren to be taken off the plane. The family of the soldier was there accompanying the group. But it was the reverence and the honor that I felt by the passangers around me that really moved me. Everyone was silent, few sat down, some removed their caps and held it across their chest. Several times a Southwest employee silenced the intercom to continue to the impromptu moment of silence. This all continued until both the hearse and the limo holding the family had left the runway. 

I needed to capture this moment of reflection by the crowd because I have never felt anything like this, I don’t care what your opinion is on the war but the respect given to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice and their loved ones is something that always needs to be remembered.