The Air Force Anchor by Tim O'Connell
I'm retiring from the Air Force in a couple of weeks. That's sort of taking up all my mind these days. I have a lot of applications in all over the place, trying to find a way to keep my family fed and housed. Until I have something locked in, I'm going to be a bit edgy. There are a couple of real possibilities. Of course I'm obsessing about making "the right" decision. Is it enough money? Will I be happy with what I'm doing? Will I be home enough? What the HELL was I thinking? Yeah, I'm basically a wreck right now. I know clarity will come. I'll intuitively know what to do about what's baffling me. That's the way my life works. I do wish I could skip all the obsessing beforehand though. You'd think I'd be better at this by now. The making decisions thing I mean. You'd think but ummm, not so much. One of the things that keeps me relatively sane is hanging out here. I'm not even sure how it happened. Somehow I wound up in the middle of one of FTTW's email threads and it was the most fun I'd had in a long time. Next thing I knew I was writing here. I know I'm impulsive to a fault, but it usually ends in something I've got to work like hell to get out of. This isn't one of those times. I was going to write about my history of blogging and how I know Michele and Turtle and the rest of the gang, but then I realized I have no idea what year what happened and I couldn't tell you if I first met some of the gang here on one blog or another and hell, some of them I've just realized recently I've known for YEARS instead of the couple months I've been here. Don't take it personal…I've been preoccupied. It's been kind of crazy for the past 17 years or so. The thing I want to say most is Happy First Birthday Faster Than the World. Thanks for letting me hang out in the basement with your big brother's old stereo after school. Thanks for inviting me out for coffee after the dance. Thanks for letting me play in your playground. |
Comments
Good luck dude!
Posted by: Dan | May 23, 2007 7:48 AM
You said it best, that you'll intuitively know what to do when the time comes. Obsessing over things before hand is something that NCOs do well. So, you're going to be just fine, Tim.
I'd say "Air Power," but that's just gay.
Posted by: Cullen | May 23, 2007 8:21 AM
I forgot you were an f'n' zoomie.
Good luck dude. It's a jungle out there. But they ain't shootin at ya, so you got that goin for ya, which is nice.
Posted by: Dave in Texas | May 24, 2007 2:44 PM
I remember commenting in a lot of the same columns with you Timmer, I'm glad you took on a column of your own.
Posted by: Richard Wallace | May 24, 2007 9:19 PM