It was always a joke, but everyone knows, the best jokes are rooted in truth.

She would never stay put, she was too wanderlust, they mocked her even in youth.

She never stayed down, was precocious and bold, too stubborn ever to quit,

The bullies, they tried, but eventually stopped, when she just couldn’t be bothered with it.

She played four different sports, captained six different teams, broke records and no shortage of bones,

Learned to read at age three, was doing calculus by 12, blew through all of the standard milestones.

Her family was large, her support system great, her friends and her faith ground her too.

But she was young and naive, impossibly so, nothing more than a green ingenue.

Her father would laugh and say someday she’d know, what the world outside Utah beheld,

It would test her and try her and mostly just shock her, her education would be unparalleled.

At 15 her sports dreams went up in smoke when her knee ripped apart at the seams.

She could walk and could run, but cutting was out, she said goodbye to all of her teams.

Then she got down to work, with plan B and plan C, but she’d really known this all along:

That she wanted adventure, she wanted to learn, so she jumped into her decision headlong.

She met the next day with a Staff Sergeant at school, who wooed her to join the Air Force,

Two short years later, she signed on the line, with excitement and no real remorse.

She said goodbye to her friends, her family all cried, but she was ready to be on her own,

She was scared but excited, nervous but sure, she walked straight into the great, dark unknown.

She spent six long years traveling and learning anew, meeting people all around the world,

Studying language and culture, politics and war, growing up from that small little girl.

She made friends who were family, she always loved hard, had her heart broke a few times at least,

But she always bounced back, found a way to keep going, her education to always increase.

She learned a new language, and moved place to place, her wild spirit always wanting to roam,

She thought she’d travel forever, fulfill all her dreams,

…until an impetus brought her back home.

The world keeps on turning, no matter what, so we all know that life must go on.

But every person experiences that one life event, that’s a world-halting phenomenon.

Her sister, beloved by all whom she knew, the pregnant mother of four little boys,

Took a ride through a field, but didn’t come out, got distracted by some little noise.

The ambulance came, two helicopter too, and rushed them all to medical care,

When her helicopter landed, the baby declined, so they cut him out while she was barely aware.

The baby, he lived, through no small feat at all, he’s now perfect and lovely and smart.

Sweet to his core, the kid’s cunning and brave, with the ability to heal every heart.

The sister lived too, though she’s far from the same, a child living in an adult,

She was holding her babes instead of her head, severe brain damage was the result.

So the girl moved back home, five kids to help raise, her wanderlust she put down on hold,

Someday when the boys grow she’ll leave once again, with new adventures and journeys untold.

But ‘til then she’ll tell her stories, her lessons, her dreams, to the five boys who’ve stolen her heart,

She’ll continue her learning, any way that she can, for knowledge will always impart.