Past and Future Struggles

Past and Future Struggles

Angela Harris

Gen 300

Dec. 5, 2005

Sometimes in life we make decisions that sooner or later we either regret or are grateful that we made them. I am hoping that the University of Phoenix will be one of my decisions I am definitely grateful for.

I have chosen to explore a great deal of things in my past life experiences that of which I never sat and thought about the outcome first. A great deal of people in this world are spur of the moment type people and deal with the consequences later type people. I believe that in any major decision such as marriages, returning to school, joining the military, having children, and things as such, should be thought-out thoroughly. These are journeys that will affect our lives, loved ones, and other people we come into contact while we are on these journeys.

This is my story. I enlisted into the military on August 28, 1995 at the age of 20 as a single mother. My reasoning was to support my 8 month old daughter. I wanted to do something where I could make money and go to school at the same time and this was the best solution I came up with in 3 days of thinking out. I never once thought about making the military a long-term future for me, the military was just something to get by for the time being. I admit that I was young and not goal-minded at all. I served my 4 years and got out. I never thought twice about reenlisting. I left Norfolk, VA and moved back home not having a clue in mind where I was going to work or live for that matter. I managed to get a couple of good jobs over the next 2 years, because I just served in the military and all but I still had no definite direction to head towards.

After 9/11 occurred, I decided that I was too smart to be job hopping so I started thinking about what type of jobs that I wanted to do that would make me happy. What have I done in my past that made me happy. After contemplating for about 2 weeks I came to the conclusion that being in the military made me very happy. So why did I get out? I do not have an answer to that question. So that is what I decided to do to finally get my life on the right track-joined the military again and this time with a goal to make the military a career. I figured I was older and wiser now, so this time should be a breeze since I knew what to expect this and I did not have to return in as the man at the bottom of the ladder. But, of course things do not always pan out the way we plan them to, so we should always have a plan B in mind which, of course I did not.

After 2 Ð'Ð... years into my second enlistment I got sick and inquired an illness called Lupus better known as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disorder that can affect many organ systems including the skin, joints and internal organs. Currently doctors do not have a cure for or do they know where its originated from. With the inquirement of this illness I was in and out of the hospital so therefore I was given the option to medically retire (receive medical attention free for the rest of my life as well as get a check for the rest of my life), or take a severance check for $34,000 and some change (which