Honor Flight vs Honor Walk

 I was scrolling TikTok the other day and came across this lovely video of a person who just happened to be at Austin Bergstrom Airport when they saw an honor flight. I didn’t know what that was at first- it’s to fly veterans back and forth to DC to visit things that honor them. 

I got it confused with an honor walk and thought they were going to walk by with a casket. However, an honor walk is a bit different. This is when someone is either in their very final moments or has just passed away, and they are an organ donor. The hospital staff lines the halls to honor the person donating and show support for the family. The family walks behind. If the person is still alive during the honor walk, they are extubated when they reach the operating room and allowed to pass naturally. I think most of the time though, they are already gone. I’m not sure. 

If the thing in the airport was for a deceased person, the bagpipes would have been playing amazing grace and not that cute upbeat song they were playing. That’s why I got confused and did some googling. 

I do have one gripe, though- the three people holding the flags in the front were not stepping in time with the guards and the bagpipers. I did color guard very briefly in high school, as well as a couple other flag holding things, and if it’s a military thing, you should coordinate your steps. Oh well it was very nice and would have been nice to see in person!!

No Classes Were Wasted in the Changing of this Major!

My daughter Anna texted me last night to announce that she’s changing my her major. It’s only her second year of university, and she hasn’t taken any upper level classes yet.  So everything she took last year and is taking this semester still “counts”. 

 

Anna on her first day of university sophomore year ⬆️ 

When I went to parent orientation over a year ago now, they told us how normal and expected it was for young people to change majors. It wasn’t considered normal when I was Anna’s age!  I remember older people shaming the hell out of us for changing!  We were expected to pick one thing at age 18 and stick with it until about age 65!  

I’m glad things are different for Gen Z. 

Anna went through a phase a few years ago where she wanted to be a genetic counselor. At the time, I was following a lady on social media who had three children- one older daughter who was healthy, who was from her first marriage. Then two little ones who had a severe genetic disease. They both passed away, and her older daughter went away to college. She ended up becoming very depressed. Anna was inspired by her family, but also had a high interest in genetics. I remember when she was about 12-13, she made her own comics about fantasy cats. She made entire family for the characters she made up. Each one had a slightly different characteristic. If I can find these drawings, I’ll post them. 

Here’s Anna this past summer in Alaska when she went with her step grandmother and dad’s side of the family-