Vulnerable People and Places Blog

  Let’s paint a picture… You’re 18, fresh from high school, can’t afford college, no one will hire you because you have zero experience, and you just have to get out of your parents’ house. What do you do? You pick a branch. You serve your time, you form trauma bonds with the most unlikely people, and you’re immersed in a highly structured and detail-oriented environment where mistakes kill. To relieve some of that work stress, you go drinking with your buddies. After a year, it’s a social pastime; after two, it’s a habit. At four years, you need it just to sleep at night. You’ve blown every paycheck on youthful mistakes of high interest rates, obscene amounts of alcohol, and actually edible food, since the chow hall is sickening. You’ve collected every joint pop and muscle strain a body can get, not to mention the nightmares, the flinching at any sudden movements or loud noises. You know how to do your job very well, you are highly specialized and critical to mission succes...