I keep being told how courageous I am, and how various people respect me and look up to me for joining the Guard.
I don't really see it that way. If it isn't a matter of gumption but merely seems the next step, the next thing to do --is that courageous? Not that it doesn't scare me. Not that I don't have to push past my doubts. It's just that I don't consider it anything that anyone else might not do. It isn't impossible. I don't really think of it as being unusual except by that strange incident I know very few other girls in the Guard. And neither does anyone else, apparently.
I'm nothing special where I'm going. I guess that matter-of-factness creeps into the way I view the whole thing: I will be ordinary as the ground. Others will prove the exception, and shine as stars. I only want to be a good soldier.