Sometime you do Crazy things......

I quit my job today. Well, not really, I accepted a different position in the hospital though. I’m still wondering if I did the right thing. I mean, sure the new job requires me to work sometimes long and unpredictable hours without increased financial compensation. I will acquire a skill that will hopefully enable me to earn a high five figure income in about 3 years. Why three years? That’s when I get my freedom papers from the US Air Force.
I DO sometimes ask myself, “What was I thinking when I signed those papers?”…..and then I remember. My Main motivation for joining was simple really. I had to get away from home…I Had To before someone got hurt. I was a year out of high school trying to go to school full-time and work two jobs. I would get up in the morning, head to class, go straight from there to my day job stocking shelves at the grocery store, head home for like to hours to check on the siblings, see if mom came home today and then head out to my night job loading trucks for UPS until midnight sometimes, then getting up and doing it all over again the next day.
My grandmother, who always held me down, had just passed. I was working myself to death to take care of her house, myself and my younger siblings. While dealing with my chemical dependant mother, who was pretty good at stealing from me. After a year I was gone…mentally. I was like a zombie.
One day I came home from school, one of the rare afternoons I wasn’t working. I got a phone call from a collection agency, asking me why I have not paid my Visa bill. Hold up!!!! Stop!!!! Wait a minute!!!! I don’t have a credit card!!!! What are you talking about? Then I remember that I DID apply for a student Visa and I know exactly what happened. This B*&^ done activated my credit card and ran up a $800 bill, like six months ago and she sure as hell didn’t use it for bills or groceries. I was done. Seeing red. She is so lucky she wasn’t in the house that afternoon because I might have caught a case. We did have….um some physical activity later on that day though. She says she doesn’t remember a lot about those days, but she remembers me throwing that milk crate at her head..LOL.

Anyway that’s when I decided I had to get the hell away. I didn’t want to leave my little sisters and brother behind, but I had to take care of myself before I could take care of them. I was for real losing my mind. There was one incident involving a bottle of over the counter sleeping pills. Like I said I had to go. However I didn’t really have anywhere to go. I could have got a place of my own, but that wasn’t really away. I could have tried to stay with my dad in Cali, but I really hated his ass at that point. About a week after the whole credit card issue a friend of mine from work tells me he’s joining the Air Force. He’s going on and on about the pay and benefits and college tuition. Now, I never saw myself being in the military. I mean, I was this loner who got kicked out of military school when I was 14. Desperate times though. So, I left one day for basic with the clothes I had on, a change of underwear and enough money for lunch and bus fare.
Fast forward almost seven years and I’m over my military experience. I’m just counting the days now. I’ve had great experiences and bad experiences. Seen some beautiful parts of the world (Germany, Italy, and Saudi Arabia) and seen some stinky parts of the world (Afghanistan, Pakistan). Don’t even get me started on “Don’t ask, Don’t tell”. It’s time to go.