A Quick Shout Out to Tom

I have a friend named Tom.  Tom and I have been friends for almost thirteen years.  I remember my first day at Columbia Middle School when I was the new kid in the third grade class.  I had no friends and no way to even begin making friends.  Everyone seemed to look at me differently here than at my last school. The only class I was looking forward to was P.E. I knew I could hang in any game and when you're eight, the kids who are good at sports are the "cool kids".  Unfortunately this new school did playground picks and since no one knew I could play, I was sure to be picked last, however I underestimated the kindness of one of my classmates. Tom ended up picking me first, and when I went to his side, he took me aside, shook my hand, and told me he would like to be my friend.  This story is just one example of Tom's behavior that shows his unmatched character.  This past Thanksgiving break Tom told me he was finishing his bachelor's degree at Mizzou and then joining the Marines.  When I asked him why he gave me another example that I thought should be written about.  "We send people overseas to risk there lives, and the majority of the time they are our poor or the people who had no choice to go in.  I really can't just get over that and go on enjoying the freedoms I do, especially if I know I was one of the people who sat back and let other people defend them."