Friends,
I mean it when I say I think about this community often-- haven't been active over the years because I'm dumb, but I also haven't found anything quite like you good folks. Hope you're all staying rare and motivated out there, please let me know how things have been going in the comments.
I officially hung up my Army hat last Friday, and jumped on a plane from Alaska to NYC to start an internship at the NY Federal Reserve. It's not exactly where I want to be, but it's in the neighborhood, so I plan to be a good neighbor, make some friends, and hopefully get invited to a juicier cookout.
I haven't had any time to reminisce, get closure, or really close the chapter properly on my Army life. My dumb ass ended up becoming a top-performing, trusted part of my organization and by the time I got out I was working a good ~5 career-years ahead of where I should be by rank. Lots of folks came to me for guidance on hard decisions, and issues they're having at work. I walked very fine tightropes and chopped through some yucky political jungles to take care of myself and my people successfully. Took a quick vacation to Iraq for a year somewhere in there, which is also not something I'll process anytime soon-- for those veterans on Hubski that have numerous into double-digit deployments, feel free to give me some guidance on that. Anyway, it all sounds simple and great when I put it on paper, but it was a whole lot of fuckery I put myself through the last near-decade, so I guess my biggest fear is that my memory of the important details and lessons-learned will fade before I really get a chance to leverage them in my forthcoming civilian life.
Enough about me-- please shoot me a message if you're in the NYC area to catch up over a coffee or a beer, let me know what's been cooking for you, and keep being your beautiful selves until next time.
Pabs