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The crack of a bullet missing your head by inches. The deafening roar of a roadside bomb shredding the truck in front of you. The soldier screaming at you, "Ma'am, what do we do now?" while holding his bleeding arm as the enemy moves closer. It's hard to relax when you are at war. Your adrenaline is permanently in overdrive, as you could be mortared in your sleep, walking to the chow hall, or, God forbid, while you are doing your business in a foul sweltering porta-potty. It was during my year in Iraq when I learned the value of hobbies that help you relax.

The only way I could relax was to take my mind completely away from my surroundings or to burn off some of the adrenaline constantly pumping through my veins. Quite frankly, being in Iraq was a bit like being high on drugs and not having slept for 24 hours. Your body is at war with itself, and you constantly have to feed it caffeine to keep your body from quitting on you. For anyone expecting the return of a loved one from Iraq, please let them sleep when they can and be patient when they can't. Returning to civilian life is a bit like withdrawals, as you become an adrenaline junkie. I digress.

To take my mind of off possible imminent death, I discovered the pure pleasure of a truly engaging book. Many people around the world would send us deployed soldiers used and new books to read, and I enjoyed visiting our makeshift library to search for a good book among the hundreds haphazardly tossed on shelves with nary a thought to the Dewy Decimal System. Reading those books transported me to a different world, a world of no death and no dying, of no need to be brave in front of my soldiers even when I was scared to death. My favorite book was Pride and Prejudice (yes, I am a female!), and no matter how many times I read it, I would cry and laugh and long and love right along with the characters. That book created a safe haven where I could acknowledge and feel true emotions that I had to bottle up and repress every day while wearing the uniform. Often while reading I would notice my muscles slowly relaxing and a feeling of peace creep up on me. Reading a book was the only way I could get my body to unwind so I could sleep at night.

To burn off the shaky energy that adrenaline creates, I delved into the wide world of recreation therapy. Your body gets tired after living on edge for any length of time, and your emotions slide into the realm of the irrational, which is not a desirable quality in a leader who makes

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