Like many people, I tend to reflect at the end of the year, reflect on my life, and more specifically the last year. This year however, I focused almost solely on my time aboard my new ship.

On Aug. 14, 2014 I received orders to detach from Submarine Learning Center (SLC) Det. San Diego and report to amphibious transport dock ship USS San Diego (LPD 22).

I was excited about my new orders for a number of reasons, I was going to be able to stay in San Diego, a city that I have grown to love, I was going back to sea to tell the Navy story, and I was doing it on a new class of ship that I had never been on before.

I was ordered to report to the San Diego no later than Dec. 15, 2014 and as this date grew closer a familiar feeling began to set in, the fear of the unknown. In my almost 15 years in the Navy I had been permanently stationed at five different commands, deployed or trained on six different ships, and been to too many schools and classes to even count. I can honestly say that I had never been at least apprehensive before I reported to all of them.

I was going to fill an independent-duty billet aboard San Diego. This meant that I'd be the only photojournalist and public affairs specialist on the ship. This wasn't necessarily new to me; I had done it temporarily in 2011 aboard USS Comstock (LSD 45) and at the SLC Det. for the last two years, but that didn't mean I wasn't nervous.

On Nov. 17, 2014 I parted ways with my friends at my first and possibly only submarine command and prepared to meet my new command while they were on their maiden deployment. After a few weeks of leave and a short stay at the transient personnel unit in San Diego, my travel orders came through to fly to Djibouti on Jan. 6, 2015 and meet San Diego.

After approximately three days of stop-and-go traveling, a group of my new shipmates and I touched down on the flight deck of USS San Diego in a pair of MV-22 Ospreys.

At this point I wasn't thinking about much except getting something to eat and a good night's sleep; I'd deal with everything else in the morning.

During my first day of work aboard the ship I took care of the important stuff, I started learning my way around the ship, meeting the people in my division and my department, really getting settled into my desk and my new ship, the rest would come in time.

After the initial couple of weeks of getting to know San Diego and becoming part of the team, a few things became very noticeable, mainly that there was a team attitude.

I really felt that I had been accepted into the crew and I noticed that the people who flew in with me seemed to feel the same way.

By this time I was back into doing my specialized job aboard the ship, taking pictures and writing articles and my work was being noticed and appreciated. It wasn't just me that was fitting in; the junior Sailors who had flown out with me to their first ship were working hard and were being recognized for it.

By February San Diego and her crew could see the finish line of the ship's maiden deployment and all the apprehension I had felt a couple months before was completely gone.

On Feb. 25 we returned to our homeport of San Diego but the work wasn't finished yet. We still had to complete our ammunition offload at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach in April and eventually transit to BAE Systems San Diego Shipyard for an extended maintenance period in May, both would require long days and a continued team first attitude.

Before we left for Seal Beach the ship was recognized with its second strait Battle Effectiveness (Battle "E") Award for Naval Surface Forces, highlighting all of the work they had done in 2014.

San Diego and her crew would continue to be recognized and rewarded for their hard work. During the shipyard maintenance period I took pictures of multiple awards ceremonies recognizing individuals for their accomplishments and perseverance, as well as promotion and advancement ceremonies.

Appreciation is also shown to the crew by sending us to schools, a command picnic, a command holiday party and sometimes all it takes is a thank you or a "bravo zulu".

I would be lying if I said everyday on San Diego has been an adventure or even just a good day however, I've had a lot more good days than bad days.

No job is perfect but I've been impressed with this crew almost everyday I've been on board. I've seen shipmates take care of each other, sacrifice for each other and lend each other a hand on a regular basis. They haven't always been happy about working late, but they've done it because it's their job.

Since I've checked on board I've had two commanding officers, two executive officers, two command master chiefs, two department heads, two division officers, two public affairs officers, a lot of chiefs and too many new shipmates to count, and I feel that all of them have appreciated the job that I've done most of the time.

As my first year aboard this ship comes to a close I can truly say that I'm happy I took these orders and I'm proud to be part of team San Diego and I feel that anybody that serves aboard this vessel should feel the same.