Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

Thanks for the honest answer, as much as you could answer anyway.

Personally, I joined because my life was sh*t and I had enough foresight to know that if I didn't do something about it, it'd be sh*t forever. The best option for me at the time was the military. I could learn a trade free of charge and also kick a lot of the habits that were bringing me down, but also just have a "jolt" to change myself. It was a good jolt.

But believe me, there were multiple times where I wanted to get out. I remember thinking about ways to do so while deployed in Kuwait for my first stint in the middle east... I'd left my weapon under my bed because I was told to go on a detail in another camp (Doha) and was being rushed, and I didn't have time to sign my weapon in the arms room if I wanted to catch the bus. A "welfare inspection" was done and my weapon was found unsecured, and I got a field grade for it. Spent about a month picking up trash and digging ditches in the hot Kuwaiti weather of about 120 degrees farenheit, every day, for hours.

This other time, I had a huge douche of an E-6 that was in charge at the TCF and he was bitching me out about my uniform not being ironed. This is in the middle of deployment, mind you. Well I had enough. Snapped. Yelled, "F*CK YOU" right in front of everyone, including the platoon leader, turned around and thrust a middle finger in the air as I walked out.
Of course, the moment I stepped outside, I realized how f*cked I was.

Fortunately for me, the E-6 was pretty dumb. Instead of writing me up, he made me do a power point presentation about the chain of command. Me, having at least moderate skill at the English language, blew him away. He'd been planning on making me bring a freshly ironed uniform to him every two hours, but dropped that punishment when I was done with the presentation. Weird. I got bonus for being literate.

Throughout my service, I've had little issues like that. And to be honest, those are the hardest to deal with in the military, in my opinion. It's dealing with people that have this "authority" over you but don't really have the character and qualification to be effective with it. It's very difficult to manage internally.
And I say all this to say, that over my enlistment, I learned the most important thing I've ever learned... Just suck it up and drive on. Keep the personal feelings out of it, and just do the job. After all, you're there (or anywhere) for yourself, and you want to make it as painless as possible.

I don't mean to say just bend over. Well, in the military that's pretty much all you can do. But out in the real world, pick your battles. And if you're gonna make waves, make the ones that benefit you, not the ones that bring you down based on an inability to control your ego. A job is a job, but your life is the only one you got, so don't make it harder to live in.

Anyway, I don't know why I wrote all that.
But I did.
Whatever.

Originally Posted by Engine

Thank you for your dedication, service, and sacrifice for defending our freedoms.

But I do respect your point of view. Everybody I know who has signed up for the US military did it for the personal financial, emotional, and mental rewards. And those reasons are as good as any.

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

And I say all this to say, that over my enlistment, I learned the most important thing I've ever learned... Just suck it up and drive on. Keep the personal feelings out of it, and just do the job. After all, you're there (or anywhere) for yourself, and you want to make it as painless as possible.

I don't mean to say just bend over. Well, in the military that's pretty much all you can do. But out in the real world, pick your battles. And if you're gonna make waves, make the ones that benefit you, not the ones that bring you down based on an inability to control your ego. A job is a job, but your life is the only one you got, so don't make it harder to live in.

Originally Posted by Rezdaddy Longlegs

Obviously this is not in the military but I feel like I can relate and am slowly learning that same lesson currently in my life. After about 5 years out of high school I am returning to school to get my BA degree. Many of my teachers have had issues with me for whatever reason and I take it personally and make a big issue out of it affecting my grade and experience in the class.

What my parents told me helps, just stfu and take whatever stupid rule or attitude they give you and look at the big picture which is getting that degree. Pick the battles you want to fight, and dont just pick every single one that will get in the way of what you are trying to accomplish.

Originally Posted by Rezdaddy Longlegs

Obviously this is not in the military but I feel like I can relate and am slowly learning that same lesson currently in my life. After about 5 years out of high school I am returning to school to get my BA degree. Many of my teachers have had issues with me for whatever reason and I take it personally and make a big issue out of it affecting my grade and experience in the class.

What my parents told me helps, just stfu and take whatever stupid rule or attitude they give you and look at the big picture which is getting that degree. Pick the battles you want to fight, and dont just pick every single one that will get in the way of what you are trying to accomplish.

Originally Posted by Vanilla

I found that getting my BSc was quite straight forward. They set down rules with exams and essays etc but I did not have any problems with that. The lecturers were really accommodating. I used to be made fun of by my botany lecturer for wearing so much pink (and pink accessories) and dressing really girly (because 95% of geography students were in katmandu/sports clothes). I teased him back so it was fun.

I actually found the most issues with people were when I was working at a media company, a very mainstream office where you had to keep out the politics. I had a bit of tension with one of the girls in my group because we were both competitive and I got offered another job in the acquisition team that she wanted (I turned down the offer). But the HR manager was the *******. She was sleeping with one of the managers and she didn't like me one bit. I was super pissed at her for convincing the CEO to get rid of my team manager who was also the company trainer, during a restructure. We ended up with this new manager looking after our team who was really useless and unsupportive. She kept moaning about our numbers of websites we were completing. She wanted us to do more and more because there were so many web pages to be completed. In the end there was another restructure and she got the boot. I was so happy to see her leave.

The experience certainly made me realise how careful you have to be with what you say to people and about people. We were always watched like a hawk. I feel better now about it, I know when I get a job in IT it will be fine as long as I stay vigilant and smash their expectations.

Originally Posted by Black Francis

Briks - Quickly becoming my fav member here

Originally Posted by Briks

[B]

People I think I like, and wish that I would encounter more often

Gigantic Debaser, fellow Norwegian who posts too little
Lisna and Misspoptart, actually post about music, and will either say something nice or refrain from saying anything
Ninetales, seems nice, and I think he or she likes The Smiths

These are the first ones that came to mind. There are probably a lot more!