I (Almost) Forgot About My Discharge
by Ms. Babble on August 27, 2008
in Military, My Life in General
It just occurred to me that my official discharge from the military was on August 24th. Even though I’ve been carrying around that date in my wallet for the last 8 years in the form of a military I.D. card, it came and went without me giving a moment of thought to it. I’m kinda grateful that I forgot about it. Otherwise, I may have ended up the headliner in some ridiculous cliche like getting tanked at a bar and forcing military memories onto anyone who would listen to me.
I’m guessing they’ll just send me a spiffy piece of paper in the mail declaring an honorable discharge. As you can see, I’m not exactly worried about the details.
Rather, I’ve allowed myself exactly five minutes to reminisce. And I also made a rule to only think of positive things during those five minutes. I mostly thought about the people I served with for the last eight years. (Well, for seven of those years since I was on Individual Ready Reserve status this last year and never had to put my uniform on. I still kept in touch with the army buds I had the strongest relationships with though.)
Along with thinking about all those hilarious, exciting, boring, and stressful times with my fellow veterans, I also thought about how much I appreciated the military experience. There were times when I questioned my decision to enlist. There were MANY times that I cursed the military. It was physically painful. It was politically challenging. It was harder to mentally manage than I ever anticipated.
I realized in the last 30 seconds of my five minute reminisce (regardless of all the challenges), I sincerely miss the military. I miss the security of a job that will always be there. I miss the steady paycheck (even if the pay was ridiculously low for the number of hours required). I miss the comradeship. Most of all, I miss the way the military gives a person an absolute sense of meaning and purpose. I think this is the hardest part of the soldier to civilian transition. In the military, your life is literally broken down into missions to accomplish. There is no deviation or confusion about the matter. There’s no room for philosophizing or pondering. From the moment you wake up to the moment you close your eyes, your purpose is clear.
I sincerely miss that.
Fortunately, I’m also an independent thinker. I admit that it’s crossed my mind a few times since returning from Iraq to re-enlist and attend OCS (Officer Candidate School). I quickly pushed those thoughts aside because they only surfaced when I couldn’t find a focus in my life. I decided that it was a bad idea to re-enlist simply for the reason that I missed being institutionalized.
Now it’s all over. On the day I enlisted in 2000, eight years seemed like eternity. Now that eternity is finally here, I can only feel satisfaction with my service and content with walking away from it.
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