Adeline Maynes, softball sensation and award-winning essayist. (Jackie Saia photo)
On the softball diamond or in the classroom, Adeline Maynes is killin’ it.
The Coupeville Middle School 8th grader, coming off a 12-strikeout pitching performance against Granite Falls, will be honored at Thursday’s school board meeting for being a local and regional Fleet Reserve essay contest winner.
Now, thanks to mom Lara, Coupeville Sports is exclusively presenting that award-winning essay, “What Memorial Day Means to Me.”
Memorial Day means a great deal to me.
It means honoring the sacrifice and courage of those who have lost their lives in military service to our country.
When I think of Memorial Day, the image of my father comes to mind. What if he was the one who we were honoring?
What if one day, the United States Navy informed my family that he had been killed? How would this make me feel?
Memorial Day brings a lot of important questions to mind.
I feel I can understand the meaning of Memorial Day better than most.
Just thinking about how sad I am when my dad deploys for six months at a time, and then magnifying that feeling if he were never to come home. For military kids, this is a realistic worry.
We never know when something unexpected might happen.
For example, my dad was on an aircraft carrier when the previous Commanding Officer was removed. As the Executive Officer, he had to take charge and do both jobs.
It is incredibly daunting to think that Memorial Day could come around and my family would be the ones honoring a family member lost in service.
These experiences as a military kid make me feel that I can understand what Memorial Day means in a significant way.
All of these reasons make me think about how incredibly grateful I feel to have a dad who serves in the United States Navy and is still with us, when some families do not have that privilege.
All of my experiences have led me to believe that what Memorial Day means to me is honoring the sacrifice and courage of those who have fallen in military service to our country.
Coupeville Sports 