I joined the army at 17, to be a medic

 

I joined the army at 17, to be a medic. At 25, I went to school for gunsmithing. I bounced around between jobs for a while. I’ve never been unemployed for more than 2 weeks, unless I wanted to be. There’s been stretches where I’ve just had no work to do, but that’s different than being unemployable. (Technically, I’ve been homeless too, but I just didn’t see it that way.)

They said to never volunteer in the army. I disagreed. I got to do a lot of crazy shit by volunteering, and got away from the people who annoyed me. I’m a certified babysitter by the U.S. army…it was a fun gig and I got to play with kids instead of picking up trash.

I didn’t use my military experience to leverage anything in the civilian sector. I felt mostly dumb and confused, and wanted out of the medical field.

At 32, I was back in the medical field, working in a locked dementia unit. There was never going to be promotions or raises, and it definitely wasn’t something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

I just took whatever work I could find. Throughout my life, I volunteered for anything that sounded interesting. It’s just the way I was raised.

I’m now in my mid-40s and consider myself a generalist. Which kinda sucks, because it’s the specialists who command the high wages. But without the generalists, and the E-4 mafia so to speak, society nor the military can function.

I’m not talking about trades, because those are specialists too. I do a little plumbing, gunsmithing, mechanicking, woodworking, machining, welding — I suck at it, as much as I suck at doing surgeries. But I’m okay to be in the room while the operations are being performed and know where to stand to not get stabbed/shot/impaled/squirted, etc.

(By the time I got out of the Army, there wasn’t a place I couldn’t get into. If I wanted to be in the surgery room, I found a way in the surgery room. If I wanted to be there for an unboxing of a brand new MK-19, I was there for the unboxing because I was friends with the armorer. It was crazy. I was in a truck rollover with the MP’s mechanic and an EOD guy while we were goofing off. Truck was totaled but we were fine. None of my friends worked together. Combined, we knew everybody. The mechanic took care of the MP’s. I knew all the people working in the ER…no tickets. No bills. Nothing. It wasn’t even reported to our chains of command. We had complete reign and affiliates in different branches. Even after 20 years of being out, civilian life is still weird for me. It’s like nobody knows how to take care of each other.)

…your ‘career path’ is largely formed by who you know, your upbringing, and experiences throughout life.