Joining the army was what everybody did. So when I turned 18 it was only fitting that I joined too. Once they called back and told me to come back with my stuff I knew it was real. When I got there they put me in a unit. When I got to my unit I realized there was a black man in my unit. Black people couldn’t even use the same restrooms as white people so why are they merging us now. I have no desire to be in the same unit as a black man. I got to know everyone else in my unit but I refused to introduce myself to that man. The only reason I knew his name is because the Lieutenant started calling off. His name was Jackson Lane. When we got to the campsite nobody wanted to room with him so he slept by himself at the end of the tent. We went through intense training for months. The training was ruthless but it made me stronger and I became even better with a gun. When we got back to base one day they told us we would be going on our first mission. I felt honored to help serve in one of the biggest wars the world will ever know. Fighting in WWII would be such an honor to protect my country and my family. When we deployed out Jackson sat in the back of the truck by himself and I told myself if he was to be injured or if I had the chance to save him I wouldn’t. As I was thinking of that I tucked my cross necklace into my pocket so I would not lose it. This has been the first time in a long time that I have ever missed church this many sundays but God knows that what I am doing is for a good cause. When we got there it was like chaos there was guns firing everywhere it was awful. This is when our training kicked in and we were soldiers. As I was behind a barrier of sand I heard a bullet come from behind me. I turned around to see what looked like Jackson jumping in front of me. As I see him in the air I realized that there was red starting to fill his shirt. It was then I realized that he had taken a bullet for me saved my life something I said I wouldn’t do. I ran over to him because I knew a soldier should never be alone in death. I asked him why he did it and what he said changed the way I thought of him. He said “ God would want me to. If there is someone I can save than shouldn't I? It is my job as a soldier.” I bent down and put a cloth over the wound to stop the bleeding and soon a medic came over and they were taking him away. I told the medic I wanted to come with him. They let me see him after what seemed like days but was only a couple of hours. The surgery was a success and he was going to live. I still didn’t understand why he would do something like that. When I walked in he looked at me and was shocked to see me. I asked him why he saved me because I knew I didn’t deserve saving. He said “You have already asked me this but I will say a different answer. I know that your race does not like mine and that we are segregated because you white people think that you are better than us. But I think that me doing this is me being the bigger person in the eyes of the Lord. I know you go to church I saw the necklace you have what I don’t understand is how you can hate someone like me? It never says in the bible that black people are less than whites and it never said it was okay to treat us like that. God created all man and no matter what color we are all equal. I don’t understand how you people say you are christian but act like this?” Everything he just said made sense to me and from this day on I am going to change. He got dismissed out of the army as did I because the next day I suffered a leg injury. Jackson and I had become good friends and when spent a lot of time together due to the injuries we had succumbed. I told him I wanted to take him out to dinner for all that he had done. When we got to the restaurant the waiter said he could not come in even though I said he was with me. I began to get angry and said I would take my money elsewhere. As we began to walk out I heard a sound all to familiar it was a gun. I turned around to see everything happening all over again Jackson’s shirt was filling up with red I dropped down next to him and started to cry. I told him that he was going to be okand that he was going to live just like he did last time. He looked at me and said “I am going to die, but that is ok because I had an amazing friend like you Derek. You can be the reason segregation ends. We are proof that blacks and whites can intermix. Thank you Derek for everything.” And with those last words I saw the life come out of his eyes. We buried him at the end of the week and he left my to write the eulogy. I said “At one point in my life if you asked me how I felt about black people I would have told you I hated them. But within the last year my closest friend was a black man and his name was Jackson. The one thing that I learned about us humans is were are like waffle mix. Us humans are oil and water and we don’t mix but when you add the waffle mix which represent an event that happens in life and mix them together the oil and water mixes. This is what happened to me and Jackson and I am so grateful for it. I know that he is in heaven looking down on us and one day I will join him and that will be the greatest day of my life.” After that everyday I would go to Jackson’s grave and tell him how my day was and put a new flower on his grave so he always has a fresh one. Now I go around to trying to end segregation in honor for Jackson. Because in the end we are all like waffle mix.