Military Ex Comes Back

Transcript

I'm sorry. I beg your pardon. Oh, hi.

This is, um, well, this is a surprise. Hi. It's been, um, it's been a while.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bump into you there. No, just recently, recently, uh, came to the area.

Um, long story. Well, um, yeah, this, gosh, I, sorry. It's, it's a little bit awkward for me.

This is, this is, I didn't expect to see you of all people here today. Is this the area where you ended up? And, and it works well for you? You like it here? Good.

That's good. I'm glad to hear that. I'm really sorry.

You've just caught me completely off guard here. I, yes, I'm, I'm out. I separated from the army and decided to settle here.

Only a couple of weeks. I, I'm still very new to the area, getting used to civilian life, although not completely civilian. I, I stayed in the, in the reserve.

So I, I do still have some contact, uh, with the military, you know, when we can emerge from the military, uh, I do still have some contact, uh, with the military, you know, one weekend a month and then during the summer, obviously some time or I will when next summer comes around. I, I'm sorry. I'm, but it's, it's been so long and I've run through so many scenarios in my head that, and, and then to run into you, um, everything that I had thought that I wanted to say just vanished.

I imagine it's awkward for you too. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, are you, are you just about done here? You know, on your way out? No, just, um, a few things still on my list, but if you are going that way and I'm, I'm going this way, then, um, maybe this is where we part ways.

No, I'm, I'm not trying to avoid you. If you want to catch up a little bit, I'm, I'm open to that. I just, you know, I, there's just a lot of feelings going on right now and a lot of feelings that I thought I'd buried or that were gone.

I didn't expect to have back. Yeah. I wonder that all the time.

What happened to us? What could we have been? Well, gosh, I think I lost track of you when I was deployed, right? When I was in Iraq, those were long deployments back then, 15 months, I really don't blame you for, um, for moving on.

A long distance relationship is really hard to maintain. And for you and me, we, we hadn't been together for very long. It was a, it was still a brand new relationship.

No, I, I, I mean, I was, yeah, I was hurt at the time, but then I thought about it and I realized, I'm the one that volunteered to, uh, to be in the army. I'm the one who volunteered for a job that put him down range. And you came into my life and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and you came into my life after I'd already done that.

As, as someone who hadn't been with me for very long, it hardly would have been fair to ask you to put your life on hold indefinitely, waiting to see if this brand new relationship that you just started out is going to work. So the, the, the hurt didn't last all that long, the heartache a little bit, but I also, you know, I had fond memories and wish you nothing but the best. And, and I really hope things have been good for you since then.

Uh, yeah, I did. I, I did. Well, two additional tours, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.

I made it as far as made it as far as staff sergeant. And that's what I am now in the reserves. I've thought about it, but to be honest, I, I, I don't know if I want to become an officer.

I'm happy where I'm at. And my job now, you know, I, I, I was able to leverage my military skills into a job as a contractor here. So it is nice to be, you know, able to go back onto the post here and interact with military personnel.

Although now I do it as a DOD contractor. It is a nice wearing slacks and a shirt to work instead of, instead of a uniform. I, I do miss the uniform.

You speak to me a lot about, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the uniform. You spend enough years in it, it becomes your comfort zone. And hey, once you've broken those boots in, they're so comfortable.

Those boots saw me through some tight spots. But enough about me here. Permanent in the air? I mean, this is very long way off from where we were when we were dating.

How did you settle here? Okay. So, uh, you like it? Has it worked out for you? Are you planning to be here long term? And I, I, I know maybe that I don't, I don't want this to come off the wrong way.

But the, um, the guy that you started dating when I was deployed, did things work out there? I'm really sorry to hear that. I am.

No, not because it leaves the opportunity open for me. Believe me, that's not at all what I was thinking. Look, I.

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