It Ain't Me. . .
My nephew joined the army not that long ago.
I guess "finding himself" has been hard for him. He dropped out of H.S. never got his shit together to get his G.E.D. worked a bunch of odd jobs here and there - moved around the country from his dad, to his mom, to his step-mom, back to his mom and finally "the army".
I come from an "air force family" - my uncle, my brother, and a ton of cousins and other relations have all been in the air force reserve or full timers - but my nephew could not do join the USAF b/c he did not have a high school diploma. Growing up I got a lot of pressure to join the Air Force, espeically in my late teens and early twenties, when I was considered the family "fuck-up" for playing in bands and writing novels and dropping in and out of college and never once having a major that was going to make me any money.
When I found out my nephew had joined the army, I said to his father "Did you tell him this is a bad time to join the army?"
To which he replied, "He needed to do something, and I rather he go with my blessing than for him to go thinking I disapprove of him."
Sigh.
I wanted to scream. "I don't dispprove of him! I disapprove of this damn war!"
My nephew is going to risk his life for fucking what? Because he was a teen-aged fuck-up and felt a lot of pressure "to get his life together" - you need to have a life in order to do that. . .
So, sure enough - he is done with his training and is shipping off for Iraq on Sunday - I have not been able to get in contact with him yet, but I hope to tonight.
I so want to tell him to not go. Or at least remind him that whatever the consequences, that if has changed his mind - he should refuse to serve - but I don't think it would do any good - and might not be right of me to suggest.
I don't know.
I am just really upset about this, and when it comes to this kind of things I stand alone in my family.
I guess "finding himself" has been hard for him. He dropped out of H.S. never got his shit together to get his G.E.D. worked a bunch of odd jobs here and there - moved around the country from his dad, to his mom, to his step-mom, back to his mom and finally "the army".
I come from an "air force family" - my uncle, my brother, and a ton of cousins and other relations have all been in the air force reserve or full timers - but my nephew could not do join the USAF b/c he did not have a high school diploma. Growing up I got a lot of pressure to join the Air Force, espeically in my late teens and early twenties, when I was considered the family "fuck-up" for playing in bands and writing novels and dropping in and out of college and never once having a major that was going to make me any money.
When I found out my nephew had joined the army, I said to his father "Did you tell him this is a bad time to join the army?"
To which he replied, "He needed to do something, and I rather he go with my blessing than for him to go thinking I disapprove of him."
Sigh.
I wanted to scream. "I don't dispprove of him! I disapprove of this damn war!"
My nephew is going to risk his life for fucking what? Because he was a teen-aged fuck-up and felt a lot of pressure "to get his life together" - you need to have a life in order to do that. . .
So, sure enough - he is done with his training and is shipping off for Iraq on Sunday - I have not been able to get in contact with him yet, but I hope to tonight.
I so want to tell him to not go. Or at least remind him that whatever the consequences, that if has changed his mind - he should refuse to serve - but I don't think it would do any good - and might not be right of me to suggest.
I don't know.
I am just really upset about this, and when it comes to this kind of things I stand alone in my family.