Tuesday 29 March 2011

I'm 28 years old and I don't know what I want to do with my life.

    That's right.  28 years of my life have passed and I don't really feel like I've started truly living this thing called Life.  I will be separating from the military soon after four years of service to my country.  Is it strange that when I write the words "service to my country" I don't feel that that's what I've been doing?  I love the United States and I am proud to be an American but I would be lying if I said the only reason I signed on the dotted line was because I had my homeland's number one interests at heart.
   I originally joined the military because I hated my job.  I saw the military as an option to escape the rut of what had become my daily life.  I bought into the "see the world" aspect of all the recruiting advertisements.  I first talked to my Dad about my intentions to join the military who was more than happy to visit a recruiter with me.  My Dad has served in the US Army Reserves for as long as I can remember so when he told me that the Air Force would be the best choice for me I listened.  He said that the Air Force treats their people better.  It didn't take much convincing after that.  I figured my job couldn't get any worse.  Then I went to Basic Military Training as they call it in the Air Force.  Boot camp is the term used more loosely for any kind of military basic training.  I spent six and a half weeks at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX.  I will never forget my time there.  It was one of the most stressful times of my life and I'm glad to have that brief moment of my life over and done with.
    After "boot camp" I was flown to Wichita Falls, Texas where I would be going to school to learn how to do the job the US Air Force needed me to do.  I was to become a Munitions Systems Apprentice.  Everybody in the military calls it AMMO.  Our job is to maintain any and all munitions assets at a particular base.  We can learn to inspect, store, build and transport bombs, small arms, missiles and basically anything that's designed to hurt or kill another human being.  There's a saying in our career field; "If you ain't Ammo you ain't shit!" and you're supposed to shout it at the top of your lungs with pride.  Most that have been in Ammo, in my experience, longer than a month will definitely not be proud when chanting that.  They will be doing it because their supervisor or some high ranking personnel needs to hear it before they will leave.  So the point I'm trying to make is that my job has sucked for the past four years.  I do not regret joining the military though.  I just know that it is not something I want to be doing for the rest of my life.  I have thought about joining the Guard or Reserves but I do not want to get stuck in something again for such a long period of time that I hate doing.  I feel that I would enjoy my job more if I saw first hand the actions of what I did was a benefit to somebody.  I think I would like to serve in a more humanitarian role such as helping victims of natural disasters but with the military you can never be sure what you will be doing one month to the next.  It's this uncertainty that has turned me off re-enlisting.
    As I said before I will be leaving the active duty military soon and it is now time for me to sit down and do some incredibly deep soul searching.  I felt like I have done that yet I still have no idea what I want to do.  I have options.  I can go back to school which has not always been my biggest passion to put it lightly.  I can try to seek a job which transfers from military job to civilian job.  I can work for somebody that my military friend is trying to hook me up with.  I can collect unemployment(for a time).  These are the thoughts that have kept me up through the nights.  I have told my wife and other people some of these thoughts and they all seem to have the same answers.  Usually they will ask "Well what are your interests?".  I do have many interests but I see no way of monetizing them.  Maybe I'm just not being open-minded.  I enjoy playing videogames.  When I say playing I mean just that.  I'm not interested in designing them or writing them or testing them.  I mean sitting on the couch and playing them.  I also enjoy watching movies and surfing the internet.  Music is a hobby of mine that I used to be very passionate about but now that passion has dwindled some.  My favorite bands have remained the same and I enjoy going to concerts but I don't feel the same zest and excitement I once felt when one of my favorite bands would come to town.  When I first started going to college I was studying Film.  Film has been another passion of mine from as far back as I can remember but like music I just stopped thinking about it as much.  The love wasn't there anymore and I can't for the life of me figure out why.  I think I would enjoy being a film editor one day but is it selfish to want to find a job that you love instead of pursuing a career that is stable and that you will be able to provide for your family with?  Two of the main reasons I decided to leave the military is because I didn't want to be a part time father or a part time husband.  I know the requirements of being a film editor include long hours so would I be leaving one stressful, long hours, work weekends type of job for another one?  Will I ever have the perfect life?  Should I just stop whining?  Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi.  You're my only hope.

10 comments:

  1. Hang in there?

    I just turned 28 this evening, and I'm not sure what to think of it. I have a degree, I've completed college, a graduate degree at that, Architecture. So am I an architect? No, I'm a bartender since the economy has taken a dive, and my own personal finances have kept me in the city in which I graduated. But things are looking up, day by day the grasp on adulthood takes hold(in a good way).

    While I'm the last person to give advice, I would say break down your goals into small parts, small successes here and there lead to bigger things until you can move on.

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  2. Thanks for the reply Teffa. You provided some great advice.

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  3. Well, I'm 28 as well and will turn 29 on the 26th. I don't feel like I've "lived" life either. I'm at college right now (working on a BA in nutrition) and I'm not really passionate about college either.. I hope you get it worked out soon.

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  4. I am 28 , and I feel I spent most of my life on the same goal in college, After going through many obstacles and finally reaching to two semesters left, I now realized it is definitely not for me.. I really feel like a loser now. Plus now I am about to change my major and don't know how that will go because I am not passionate about college either. It really sucks!!!

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  5. I'm glad that i'm not the only that is having these thoughts. I'm also 28, going to be 29 in july. Going to school, changed my major three times, been in college since 2005, and now I hope I finish next may!
    I live with my parents, I don't work since they told me I didn't have too, don't go out, I'm always home, besides school. So I decided that I was going to change, I've applied in some places and now just waiting for a phone call from someone, then I will start saving and get my own place:-)

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  6. Well I can one up all of you, I'm going to be 30 in December!
    Ugh..I'm going to go to my community college in September, and as I write I still have no clue as to what major I want to go for. I like music, beauty, radio, science...all of those things make no sense together and I really don't want to do the Liberal Arts option. Feels like a cop out.
    I also considered the certificate route, so I can get a specific job quicker without the commitment to 2 yrs of school. I'd like to get some real income going by the time I'm 31 at least, so I'm young enough to enjoy it!

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  7. Good Luck Lance,

    I'm sure your wife will support you in whatever decision you make. If anything, reading the above comments has made me feel secure in knowing life has many paths and there's no designated time for things to happen. I'm actually enlisting into the Navy (I'm 27 and on the cusp of turning 28 in a few months so AF and CG weren't an option). My main reason for joining was for the G.I. Bill so I can get grad school paid for in FULL for FREE!! College for me hasn't been much but a debt trap (I owe 60k in private student loans. 30k is interest, ugh!), I knew if I decided to return to school that I'd only do it if I didn't have to pay for it.

    I graduated in '08 with a degree in International Affairs when I was 22 (at the height of the recession) and have been meandering around for the past 5 years. I'm working a minimum wage part-time event staff job now, and I hate what I do. I've avoided returning to school long enough. I'm actually taking pre-reqs to re-train as a Speech Language Pathologist. I'm like you, have a lot of interests but I didn't really know what I wanted to do.

    I figured it's a great field in the healthcare industry with good prospects for long-term stability, because I would like to have children someday. I'm happy I found this post, and reading the comments has been extremely reassuring that just because I'm close to 30 doesn't mean I have to have it figured out.

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  8. I came across this article after I googled "where should I be at age 28"because I too am having some issues figuring out where I want to go and what I want to be. I got my master's Degree about 2 years ago and I still haven't found a full time job in my career field. Not only that but my parents don't want me living here anymore and they're calling mea bum for just working part time. I'm just going to keep at It. I don't have a significant other either and I really don't want to be 30 with no real job and no woman to share my life with. So I guess I'm sharing all of this to say that you're not alone.

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  9. pssst, the calls coming from inside the house.
    you are not an anomaly. no1 has any clue how to be happy, so we grasp for straws, hoping for that fleeting moment where we can taste something so vague it seems like a deja vu upon waking. dont look the hopelessness in the eyes or youll succumb to the dead lights. slit its throat and eat the apple as it falls out. relish in the wake of indecision and accept there is no bliss without the possibility of failure. look for what makes you happy. dont chase apparitions or be that moth that always stays on the side of the tree the moon shines, cuz at the end of the line youll always have regrets. it always comes before you expect it so theres no way to prepare. do what makes you happy. what more can you ask? if playing videogames makes you happy, then play them with your family. there are ppl who do nothing but play videogames for a living. check out twitch.tv. hundreds of ppl who do nothing but sit at home playing videogames and they get very good income from the ppl who come to watch them. it may change your life. there are more possibilities out there if you just know where to look. just dont doubt yourself or what you love.

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  10. Ugh-Awkward, i'm 28 and we might be going through the same shit. One thing different is that i'm giving my last shot into the Marine Corps. I know its late, but I like to go where I feel most humble at, which is somewhere alone, no one knows me. I feel like the last 18 years of my life have been a beautiful dream, i was loved, hated, selfish, ignorant, blessed, although peaceful and content but honestly lost. The chapters in my book is filled with wonderful memories with beautiful people, the more you try to forget the harder it is to let go, but thats life, i learn to embrace my mistake and hopefully i have the chance to share the same experience to my kids if i ever have any. I was so caught up in my life that i forgot to visit my two dead grandmothers in Vietnam, after their passing I came back there for their funeral all on my own, the experience awaken me. I went back to Kentucky and pack all my shit, left my family and friends and set out to California, where i have nothing neither in my pocket or anyone to bear with. Life is real out here, the 9 dollar an hour job-losing 15 lbs is unbearable, i slept in my car once, now i'm doing my best to pay bills (the prince who turns into a frog), yeah thats me. But you know what? i love every second being on my own out here, its my freedom, i appreciate every second i have on this earth to make it worth living for. Sometimes i think about my old friends and family, but home is where the heart is, my soul belong to the wild.

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