Thank you to all of the ladies and men out there who served. I know there are quite a few on here. hvd.jpg
Thank you to all of the ladies and men out there who served. I know there are quite a few on here. hvd.jpg





I just wish all of my veteran friends - the ones who were crucial to me being able to pull through it all when I came back - hadn't all moved away, because I'd really like to spend the day with them. Just sitting around a fire in someone's backyard, drinking orange juice while they drank beer, telling corny jokes that only a bunch of misfits like us would find funny, grilling burgers, arguing over which state does barbecue best, throwing horseshoes (even if I wasn't very good at it), the 6'3" "Amazon woman" and Iraq vet reminding me of what a great armrest I make.... It's not that I didn't appreciate what I had back then, but I didn't really fully understand just how much it meant to me. It was a group that our time i the military had brought together, but it was one where we proverbially let our hair down. It was much more informal, yet much more personal.
Right now, I'm at an American Legion luncheon which I was invited to. So I'm wearing my little miniature medals, because I'm expected to, and I'm expected to be 'soldierly', and the people here know not to ask the story behind my Purple Heart, but these same people who tell me I did something great... how would they really react if they'd known I was stripping last night? I really don't feel like I fit in here.
Written on the walls at the house of sorrow
You can find the names of those who burned
Greater yet, the pain in little drawings
I could not remain in that room





I understand that. I don't want my status as a vet to be the defining thing about me. I feel like there's much more to me than a single unexpectedly shortened tour I did in a war which has been going on for 17 years and change now. It was something I did, but not what I want others to consider my defining moment. The aforementioned group - my lunatic ex-roommate, the absurdly tall woman whose accent I could never place and who always refused to tell me where she was from, and all the others who'd been in at various points ranging from Grenada to the current wars going on... we had that thing bonding us together, but the get togethers were about kicking back, having fun, fuck formality.
This American Legion thing... to me, it just seems like a collection of people who can't accept that the military is in their past. Which I don't say that to be insulting, I just mean they never really seemed to accept life without the rigidity of the military, and maybe it's what works for them, but it's really not the way I feel is best for me.
At least the food was good, and there were plenty of vets around my age, so I didn't have to spend the whole time hearing about, "The only women in Vietnam were nurses, and no offense, but I think it was better that way" and other such shit.
Written on the walls at the house of sorrow
You can find the names of those who burned
Greater yet, the pain in little drawings
I could not remain in that room





Oh, yeah. That happened.
Written on the walls at the house of sorrow
You can find the names of those who burned
Greater yet, the pain in little drawings
I could not remain in that room




As society I think the average person stereotypes people it’s just the way our brain files away information. Most people don’t look at human beings as a whole with good and bad. Most people don’t have the capacity to really “see” us. Yeah, I try to be authentic, but I get exhausted being misunderstood and labeled. I’m trying to say I understand wanting to be private about your service.
Thank you for your service.
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