IV. The Weight of Nineteen Years
There is a unique and haunting sorrow attached to the age of nineteen. At nineteen, life is fundamentally a landscape of possibilities. It is the age when young adults begin university, learn trades, fall in love, plan road trips, and debate what kind of future they wish to build. Their stories are supposed to be in their opening chapters, full of draft pages, fresh starts, and unwritten memories.
For Alvin Cullins, September 7, 1967, was the absolute end of his story. He never had the chance to return to Jacksonville, to grow old, to build a career, or to raise a family. All his potential futures were compressed into a single moment in the jungles of Quang Tri.
