The Ties That Bind

No matter who or where you are, home is always in your head. It doesn't matter if you still live there or you've moved on. Even kids who run away from home still think about home. I would know.

Everyone likes to ask why you joined the Air Force, I used to just try and change the subject. Why? Because I don't have the noble cause of serving my country, or at least the selffish reason of going to school. I joined to run away from home, which is not noble or at least reasonable.

At the end of my Freshman year of college, I was working my normal summer job and because I almost fell off a ladder and almost cut off some fingers. Since my boss wouldn't get a new ladder, I quit. Once my dad found out that I had quit my job, he told me to go back to work and he would pay for my school the next year or I could get a job and just get the hell out. I found an Air Force recruter, and joined up, and only go back to visit. Never regretting the decision I made.

I always think about home. I always wonder how my mom is doing. Is she still getting the mental and verbal abuse from my dad? Is my little brother going to get himself killed by trying to encrouch on someone else's drug territory? Has my dad finally drank or drugged himself to death? Has he had an accident with his equipment that was fatal? All these things go through my head all the time. I used to think about my grandparents until they passed away. Well, at least the ones on my mom's side, I reall could care less about the one on my dad's side.


- Chuck