SEABROOK, N.H. — Sitting in her grandmother’s living room, petite and pretty Sara Adams looks nothing like the typical “leatherneck.”

But this 22-year old “Jarhead” just got back from a tour of duty in Afghanistan with the U.S. Marines. After arriving back at San Diego’s Camp Pendleton, there was only one place she wanted to spend her two-week leave: at home in Seabrook, with family and her best friend Breann Nadeau. They’re the people she went to Afghanistan to protect.

The daughter of Jill York and John Adams and granddaughter of Sylvia Adams Bouchard, Sara Adams grew up in Seabrook, graduating with Winnacunnet High School’s class of 2008. She was finishing her first year at UMass Lowell as a criminal justice/psychology major when she decided to join the Marines.

“College is expensive, so I thought I’d look into another option,” Adams said. “I always liked the idea of the military. I liked the lifestyle. I knew I had the discipline to get through. It’s a pride thing. I wanted to be deployed. I wanted to be part of something big, to do my part.”

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Deployed to Camp Delaram in Helmand Province in Afghanistan for the past eight months, Adams provided back-up intelligence support for those in the field. Because of the sensitivity of her job, she wasn’t allowed out of camp or to mingle with the country people. Yet Afghanistan had an impact.

Poised and articulate, Adams stopped a minute to choose the right words to try to describe what life was like outside Camp Delaram’s walls.

“The buildings were cracked; there are no paved roads; the kids ran around barefoot,” Adams said. “But it’s not the physical things that impress you. It’s that the people there are always in fear of their lives. It makes you appreciate America, makes you love America.”

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Home for awhile to catch up with her 15-year-old brother Jeremy, “my pride and joy,” and the rest of her family and her friends, Adams is also contemplating what will happen in a couple of years when her five-year stint with the Marines is complete. She could return to college full time, for the GI Bill will pay for it, she said, or she could go with another intelligence-related government agency or private company, for her top-secret clearance makes that a strong possibility.

Civilian life could be in California or Pennsylvania, where her boyfriend’s from, Adams said, but her best friend shook her head.

“She won’t do that; she’s coming home,” Nadeau said. “Home to Seabrook.”