a 26 year teenage existential dilemma…
where did today go wrong?
I find myself rather depressed today, maybe the most depressed I’ve been since being in the navy. While searching once again for a mailing address for the U.S. Navy (which is absolutely impossible to find, I’ve still been unable to locate one after 3 weeks of searching online) to list on my unemployment application, I read a post online today, supposedly from a retired senior chief ET (if his screen name is to be believed) basically stating that he was a hiring manager for his company, and he’d not hire anyone who was ex military with anything but an “honorable” categorization of service on their discharge, which puts people like me, who received a “general under honorable conditions” but are listed as “uncategorized” because our term of service was so short, out on in the cold.
Granted, its one person’s opinion, but it makes me wonder how many ex-military personnel are in similar positions of authority today in the civilian world, and just how impossible its going to be for me to find work now?
Then I thought about school, and re-applying to UC Riverside (where I had been previously accepted this past January) only to find that all UC campuses are closed to new applications until Fall of 2010.
So I watched movies all day after that, District 9, Transformers 2, and G.I. Joe. Sadly, they were all pretty terrible, and while District 9 had hope early on with some creepy elements and great storytelling convention, it quickly took on a major overtone criticizing the military-industrial complex, which while being a very good message to get out, was simply not what I was expecting.
Its left me today wanting nothing more than to talk to somebody, but at the same time, I can’t talk to anyone, even when my uncle called, I couldn’t answer the phone, and now can’t bring myself to listen to his voicemail, why?
I know my immediate family resents me (just read my about me section on the front page, and its easy to understand why, hell I resent and hate myself), but surely my extended family is supportive, right?
Does it even matter if they are?
Their support still doesn’t change the fact that I’m a failure at everything I attempt.
And to end the day, apparently my request for dismissal from jury duty for Ventura County, Ca. has been denied, even though I’m no longer a resident of VC, and now live 75 miles away, in the far east end of Los Angeles County, Ca.
Makes me remember why lyrics like these speak so passionately to me (Eddie Vedder, “Society” from the into the wild soundtrack):
Oh it’s a mystery to me.
We have a greed, with which we have agreed…
and you think you have to want more than you need…
until you have it all, you won’t be free.
Society, you’re a crazy breed.
I hope you’re not lonely, without me.
When you want more than you have, you think you need…
and when you think more then you want, your thoughts begin to bleed.
I think I need to find a bigger place…
cause when you have more than you think, you need more space.
Society, you’re a crazy breed.
I hope you’re not lonely, without me.
Society, crazy indeed…
I hope you’re not lonely, without me.
There’s those thinkin’ more or less, less is more,
but if less is more, how you keepin’ score?
It means for every point you make, your level drops.
Kinda like you’re startin’ from the top…
and you can’t do that.
Society, you’re a crazy breed.
I hope you’re not lonely, without me.
Society, crazy indeed…
I hope you’re not lonely, without me
Society, have mercy on me.
I hope you’re not angry, if I disagree.
Society, crazy indeed.
I hope you’re not lonely…
without me.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Michael on 3 October, 2009 at 10:22 pm, and is filed under general, lyrics. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 11 months ago
I don’t think you got my comment to “Floundering.” I’m going to send it via regular email and hope you read it. Get help, Michael, you can.
Love,
Susan
about 11 months ago
Dear Michael,
I hear pain and frustration in this posting, and my heart is stirred. Our culture doesn’t really take that great care in helping our soldiers get back on their feet, and I am sorry to hear things aren’t going very smoothly. My wife and I returned to California with our newborn, I was unemployed for six months. I am well-educated, and had never had a problem finding work. I put out five-hundred (yes, literally) before I found something.
The point is, this problem is IN NO WAY a reflection of you, even though it effects you utterly. Our generation got it the worst, but of course the news isn’t covering that. If we had a meaningful voice, those rich guys who own the media conglomerates might be put out.
A bunch of folks from our generation have been getting fed up with being marginalized, finding refuge in the ideologies of GK Chesterton’s ” An Outline of Sanity;” Hilaire Belloc’s “An Essay on the Restoration of Property;” and EF
Schumacher’s “Small is Beautiful.” the idea is that unbridled Capitalism is a pickpocket that steals the meaning from what money is supposed to do: serve the needs communities, not urban power-centers.
Anyhow, I just wanted to say that you aren’t alone, that guys like us are regularly getting shuffled out of the mix, and I hope you don’t make any inferences about yourself from this, because this economy has failed to serve the needs of people generally for the greed of a few. Hang in there. There is a plan for you individually that is infinitely greater than the meaninglessness of the current employment crisis. You are in my prayers.
about 11 months ago
Sorry, typed the above on my phone. Meant “five-hundred job applications”