It had been 8 years since I returned to Jamaica, the country where I was born and lived until 6 years old. I had never been away for that long. Even after moving to Florida, my parents would send my brother and me to spend summers with our grandmother. Each year, the extended family would…

At a Veterans’ Day event a few years ago, a soldier explained that she was from a military family with three generations of service. She herself joined the army and served as a medic, training as a physician’s assistant. Her two brothers served in the army and marines; she had cousins that served in other…