Thoughts in words in 2020 Vision

I’m a little sad, and I’m going to allow myself to feel a little sad. I like The Young Buck. We’ve hung out nearly every day since he got back. I like spending time with him, and he is a really nice, caring person. But BOY is he frustrating me. Most of his deployment he was emailing making it sound like he wasn’t really sure if he wanted to stay in the Navy or get out. So I was consistently sending him corona/worldly updates through email, so he’d have an idea of what the world looks like when he got back. At one point it sounded like he did honestly want to re-enlist (not sure if I talked about that in an entry here or not). I allowed my hopes to get up. I thought about the possibility of following him to his next duty station IF he got sent somewhere else once PCS moves gets turned back on for approval. I also thought about the possibility of staying in Washington if they decided to keep him here for shore duty. Turns out, he was actually pretty decided the entire time that he wants nothing to do with the Navy.

I found out the other day that the Navy is the only job he’s ever had. He never had a minimum wage job in high school, whereas I had my first minimum wage at McDonalds at the age of 15. I had 4 different minimum wage jobs by the time I turned 18 and left for the Navy myself. So I understood that the benefits the Navy gives are pretty decent. He has no idea that most civilian jobs dont get a 25k re-enlistment/”stay with us” bonus every 3-4 years (submariners get a bonus but surface sailors mostly dont), they don’t give you a food & housing allowance, and the healthcare benefits while in are wayyyy better than any active duty servicemember realizes until after they get out and are on private healthcare and have to start paying for shit out of pocket. He has no idea. He also doesn’t care that he won’t have health insurance at all.

He doesn’t have to report back to work at all. His out date is July 6th, but he’s officially done work-wise. His plan was to go to a university in Utah in the fall, but that plan has already changed. He found out he was accepted into Ohio State while he was underway, and now that is his new plan. I can not see myself living in Ohio. I hate the midwest. Its flat, open and rapidly turning very conservative. I need mountains or an ocean or some sort of scenery nearby with a diverse population. Utah at least had a shit ton of ski resorts and hiking nearby. Ohio though?! I’m not feeling that one bit.

He’s also convinced that face masks, one-way aisle tapes on store floors, and glass shields between cashier and customer are all extremely temporary and everything will be normal by fall. Which frustrates me since I’ve kept him up to date on everything since it began in mid-March, so he should understand that this stuff has been going on for a while and continues to get extended. He needs in person classes to get his housing allowance through the GI Bill. I feel like he just needs to take his 25k re-enlistment bonus, complete 3 years of easy shore duty AND THEN go to school when things are normal again.

I tried, but his mind has been made up. I’m not sure how long he’ll stay in WA before moving back to Ohio. Sounds like he’s not in a rush to leave his friends here. It’ll be interesting.

Last updated May 18, 2020