The Middle Miles: Welcome to the World

4/9/2026 - Welcome to the World...

Welp… the newest Iran–U.S. ceasefire from Tuesday night (4/7) already seems to be falling apart as we speak. And Trump’s warning posts? They’re ramping right back up, promising “bigger” and badder bombings than before. :-(
How did we even get here???

From everything I’ve been reading, Americans across the political spectrum seem just as frustrated, confused, and blindsided by this new “war out of nowhere” as I am. And yes—I fully recognize that the Iranian regime has been brutal to its own people (and others) over the last 47 years since the monarchy fell and the clerics took over. But still… I can’t help wishing that American citizens had some say in whether we got ourselves entangled in yet another “forever Middle East war”—especially since this is the exact thing Trump swore he’d avoid back in those golden-escalator-entrance days.

My oldest son is only months away from turning 18 and graduating high school, and my anxiety has been sky-high thinking about him being drafted into Trump’s new overseas forever-wars. It doesn’t help that the U.S. quietly raised the maximum military enlistment age from 34 to 42—like… what exactly are they preparing for under the self-proclaimed “Peace President”? This is honestly the thing I’ve dreaded since the moment I found out I was having a son 18 years ago.

When I graduated high school in 2003, so many of my friends were enlisting for the Iraq War—everyone still running on the raw emotion and intense patriotism that followed the 9/11 attacks. Even now, 25 years later, I can barely watch documentaries about 9/11 because the memories still feel so vivid and sharp. I’m instantly transported back to my sophomore history class, then math class, watching the Twin Towers fall on the classroom TVs.

We were released early that day. My mom picked us up from school in tears, saying everything was about to change in America and in the world. I didn’t fully understand it then, but she was absolutely right.

And now, living in today’s Trump-shaped world, I feel like I’m repeating her same dire warnings to my own two sons—just like she did with my sister and me. Unfortunately, the warnings my sister and I now give our boys feel even heavier… even scarier. We each have two sons. Mine are almost 18 and 14½, and honestly, this is one of my worst nightmares made real.

What’s wild is that just a few months ago, our biggest worries were tariffs and whatever new “creative” laws Trump decided to experiment with. And now… here we are. :-(