Gathering Wool

Well, today is the 22nd of November 2005, and I turn 30 in four days. It seems like last year I turned 21, and maybe two years ago since I was in high school. It's hard not to be depressed at how fast my life is going by. I've done a lot of things since high school, I suppose, but it is all a blur when I look back on it. Let's see...

In the summer of 1993, after my Junior year of high school, I left the cattle ranch I lived and worked on and joined the National Guard and went to Basic Training at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO. After 8 weeks of hell, I went back home and graduated high school in 1994 in Laramie, Wyoming. Then I went back to Ft. leonard Wood and spent another 8 weeks learning to be a Heavy Construction Equipment Operator. While in the National Guard in Wyoming, I worked on a road construction crew. Then my family moved back to Oklahoma, and since I had no place to live, I transferred to the OK National Guard and went with them.

In the following 1 1/2 years, I worked at Pizza Hut in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, then moved to Phoenix, Arizona with a friend. While there I worked in a feed store, then trimmed palm trees for a living. When my mothers father died, I flew back to Oklahoma and accompanied my family to New York City for the funeral. While there, I went to the World Trade Center and saw all of NYC from the 106th floor. (I still have my ticket stub!) I'm glad I did that, seeing how things turned out. Upon returning to Oklahoma, I worked in a lumber yard for a while before transferring from the National Guard to the US Army. I was sent to Ft. Stewart, Georgia then, April 1996.

I spent 3 years on active duty in the 92nd Engineer Battalion at Ft Stewart, during which time I went to Kuwait for 5 months. I was there for Operation Desert Fox in December 1998, if anyone is familiar with that. I got out of the Army in 1999.

Since then I've been an over-the-road truck driver for a year, a Rental Manager for an equipment rental company for a year, the gas man for a propane company for two years, a civilian contractor/truck driver in Iraq during The War for 5 months, a couch potatoe for 4 months after that, and now a mechanic working on Army equipment for the last 1 1/2 years. Last year I buried my father just before Christmas, and found out what it is like to be torn in two inside. I haven't really recovered at all yet, but I'm working on it.

Reading back over this, it sounds like I've done all kinds of stuff. However, it seems to me like it all happened in the space of a few weeks. I guess what I'm trying to say is this: live your life doing what you want to do, because it goes by so fast. Make smart decisions, and never quit a job unless you already have another one to replace it (I made that mistake once). Also, personal happiness is more important that money, believe it or not. It has taken me a long time to figure that one out, so spare yourself the time. (I still plan to win the lotto though LOL!). Anyway, I'm off to wool-gather, as I've dredged up a lot of memories......