For many Veterans it's the sudden stop

 Could you image living a life of go, go, go. Then all of the sudden, broke arm, broke leg, loss leg, loss job. It was as sudden as a car crash. 

Image a life of getting up, running between 2-15 miles, at least every other day. Deploying with no notice. Being gone for a week to 3 years. Jumping out of airplanes. Scuba diving. Never living in same place for more than 2-3 years. Drinking all night with a great bunch of people. going to ceremonies. Getting awards. Rappelling down mountains, rappelling out of aircraft. Running obstacle courses. Running Confidence courses. Shooting ranges. Surfing. Hiking. Mountain Biking. Having kids. Going to funerals. Seeing the world. Hostile countries. Friendly countries. Learning languages. Training with foriegn units. Dating. Getting married. 

Living a non stop life every single day. Feeling like if you sleep in one extra hour, you have missed the entire day. 

 Cramp everything into a 20 year span, sometimes even less.

 Now for the funny part, this life generally starts around age 18 or 19 and goes thru 30-40 years of age. For most a 20 and out. For some it may have went the 30-35. There was a time you could stay in that long.

 Maybe a veteran was mustered out and found a great job that filled the void. But for how long. 

 In many cases, veterans live this life, then all of the sudden due to injury, life or any number othings it just stops. No more any of it. Then we look around and no one is left. The ones you would talk with arent there. Dead and gone. 

 In a very short moment, everything that was our norm is gone. For most part it happens early in the life. Wen people are living into their 80s-90s-100s. Yet this sudden stop occurs at the age of 30, 40, 50 and soemtimes in the 20s.

 Now it becomes a change of lifestyle, a change of everything from employment to possiblity disability. 

 Many, many times this void cant be filled very easily.

 The question now becomes, what do I do now. Can't walk, can't work, cant get out. Or any combination of these things.

 Fortunately for us, there are many organizations that can and will help. But at end of day only you we can decide what fills our voids. 

 If in need try the VA, VFW, AmericanLegion, WWP, Hospitals, Use any combination of or all of them. Don't limit yourself. Go to someone who knows how to help.

 Adjustment and change is hard. Not easy. Takes time. But it is very much possible.

 Don't hesitate to ask for help. 

 Families learn to recognize what your veteran is going thru. 




 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Critical Thinking or controlling

Image
The term critical thinking is used as more of a control measure than actual critical thinking these days. Many say no one uses critical thinking. Especially when it comes to politics, religion and several other of the hot topics on social media. Just because someone doesn’t agree with someone doesn’t mean they don’t use critical thinking. Critical thinking doesn’t mean someone has to agree with someone else.  It means that someone thought thru something and formed a judgement or conclusion.  It doesn’t mean I have an idea and you must agree with me. Heres where many get so POed about critical thinking. Facts or facts. Opinions are opinions.  When the opinion is preached as fact and someone doesn't agree it becomes a comment of, "you dont think, you are incapable of critical thinking." Thinking doesnt have have to be factual or have any real purpose. But if you want someone to agree with you or at least respect your idea, you have to be willing to accept that some will not...
Read more

Equal ?

Image
 Everyone screamed for equal rights in the military.  Now someone is willing to have one PT standard.  Clarified it with some women will or wont make it and some weak men wont make it. The end result, now everyone is creaming this isnt fair.  Doesnt get anyone more fair than one standard and give everyone a shot.
Read more

Bows and arrows

Image
 Many love compund bows and all the gadgets. I use a recurve. No sights, just the basic set up. My compund bow, same thing. I have used the sights and all the little items.   Once again I perfer doing things in a minimal way. I truely enjoy completing a shot the old fashioned way. With all the gadgets on my compund bow, its really hard to miss a shoot if you practice. With some of the items it is truely fogiving to some bad habits.  Kind of like having a golf club that was designed to have a large sweet spot on the face of it vs. having a extremely accurate swing.  Shooting my recurve requires that even with practice I need to be highly consistent.   Its just a personal choice to have things more challenging. With that said, many times I will turn cheats on my PS5 so its easier to win. 
Read more