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I was pretty much a troublemaker.
And then I go into the military.
I get all this discipline.
I come out.
I go to college.
And I'm a little nervous because I'm thinking, ha, I'm
so bad in school.
I've never done well in school.
And it's like I'm getting straight As.
It was too easy--
walk into class, take notes, come in at the end of the
week, and get a test on it.
That's what you do in the Army every day.
You go to your op order.
You take notes on your mission, and then at the end
of the week, you conduct your mission.
And that's it.
I enjoyed that.
And that removed a lot of the anxiety and the fear that I
had about going to class, going to school.
I was nervous being older than all students, not traditional.
I'm starting college at 27 years old, and
everybody else is 18.
And I think oh, they're going to be like, who's this guy?
Who's this guy in the back?
Who's this guy with a serious look, this old guy?
But it wasn't like that at all.
It was to my advantage.
They took me seriously.
They treated me like an adult and like a professional.
And I felt like people in the classroom looked up to me.
And they'd ask me my story, and they'd maybe be interested
in joining the Army or something like that.
And they commonly asked me questions about my deployment,
going to Iraq and stuff.
And that was actually a great opportunity to tell people the
truth, to remove whatever rumors they heard or whatever
stigmas that are being created in their minds.
I could say, well, actually, this is my experience, and
this is what it was like.
And that was positive for both me and, I
think, for other people.
Other things with school, school's like a great--
it gives you a community.
It gives you a sense of self.
You come out of the military, and you don't
know who you are.
But if I'm going to school, now I'm a student.
And people say what are you doing?
What are you doing with your life?
I say I'm going to school full time.
And they say, good job.
Congratulations.
Good for you.
And that made it a lot easier to be a civilian.