I remember when I was in High School, I didn’t have time to be ADD because things kept changing so fast. Classes were only 50 minutes long, and football practice was fast paced enough to keep me occupied. Between surfing, skateboarding, and karate, I didn’t have a lot of free time to just sit and be bored. It wasn’t until I went to college that I realized that ADD was a ‘problem’. Professors can be so pedantic and boring that I would just sit there and stare off into space. Then trying to actually STUDY, that was a feat in and of itself. If I didn’t have my girlfriend (later to become wife) there helping me I am not sure I ever would have ever graduated.
Then I entered “The Real World”. No not the first reality show ever from MTV. But all in one year I went from college kid, to College Grad, Father, and gainfully employed. It was a wake up call to be sure. My first job out of college was as a web developer for a small gift company. It lasted about 4 months. Then I got a real job. My title was “Software Analyst” at a respectable medical information systems company. But what I really did was sit at a desk and call clients on the phone to help them set-up there new software package, or at least part of it. For my ADD self it was like nails on a chalkboard for 8 hours straight. When I got to work I couldn’t wait till lunch, then after lunch I watched the clock till 4 then made a dash for the door so fast my boss sometimes didn’t know I had left. That lasted a year.
After that I bounced between a few different IT positions till I was out of bridges to burn. I was working as a bartender at a bowling center, a very upscale place, but still. I liked my job except the fact that I didn’t to see my family as much as I was used to. I made decent money for a bartender but with a mortgage, bills, and up to my ears in student loan debt, it wasn’t cutting it. Summer of 2008 rolls around and I had lost a bit of weight, nearly 50 pounds in 6 months. So Damsel and I talked a bit about something I had been wanting to do for a long time. Joining the military. It was basically a guaranteed job with great benefits and I could get my student loans paid off.
Fast Forward almost 3 years, I joined the US Army 28 October 2008. We up and moved to New Jersey for my first duty station in Summer 2009. We found a great little church and made some great friends. We knew that we would have to move this summer because this base is closing. It was already slated to close this summer before I was even given orders to come here. What we didn’t really count on was loving it here so much. We have gotten to kno wsome great people, and see a lot of sites that we are sure we would not have been able to do without having lived here with the Army. Now here it is almost Spring of 2011 and I have been in for 28 months and now I have orders for my next duty site. We leave this summer for NAS Sigonella Italy on the Island of Sicily. It is really bitter sweet in that we have to leave the friends we have made, but HEY, we are going to Sicily.
The Army has done wonders for my ADD. I get to do my job, PT a lot, learn cool Army stuff, shoot guns once in a while, go see new places, meet new people and travel half way around the world, and get paid for it. I am not sure if its all the stuff I get to do, or just the fact that I am providing for my family and serving our country at the same time. But I don’t think I would be happier doing any other job. I plan to make this a career for the next 18 more years and Damsel is on board.
So here comes the next chapter in our life and I have to say thanks to God for making this all possible. We will definitely miss our friends here, as much as we miss our friends and family back in Texas. But a long time ago I said to God “Here I am, send me!” I just didn’t expect him to send me to Italy, via New Jersey. But thus is the life of a those in the military. Thanks to my wonderful wife Damsel for being so supportive.
Ciao
