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HELLO world!
Each day just gets better and better around here. Sure I have my bad days, but on the whole things have been on the up and up!
Since my last entry, I’ve been just straight hustling. “Moving with a sense of purpose”, as we like to say. I set out goals each day, and I accomplish a good number of them as the day progresses. I’ve been mentally keeping priority lists and just keeping with my new year’s resolution, of just doing my best in everything I do.
PRT. Today’s PRT was kinda suck as usual, but I gunned for a good run time today, and I think I did well. I felt like I was about to throw up at the end, so I feel like I did my best, at least for the run. I didn’t do any situps today because I had to shush the troops during exercise.
That’s one thing that’s been getting me down recently. People hate seeing my bad side, and I hate bringing him out. I’m not sure if I mentioned it but I elected to become an Airman Leader last month, and so far for the most part people give me good words for the way I treat them. However recently I’ve been having to lay down the law a bit more.
Take for example a weekend-ly ritual called Weeds and Seeds. Airmen who have only been at Keesler AFB Tech School for less than 30 days are required to participate in what amounts to a 1-2 hour clean-up session. This last monday I had to run it with another rope (Airman Leader). I was in charge of seeing to it that the guys who lived in my building cleaned up.
Well, since I was the only person overseeing about 50 airmen on 3 floors doing 18 different things per floor, I was running up and down the stairwell alot. ALOT. I had a cleaning supply shortage to deal with, and people were asking me to check their details, and plus I had added instructions from the Chief MTL to get the entrance area to my dorm cleaned up.
On top of that I had to deal with the attitudes of a certain Airman who I graduated BMT with… some old dude who thinks he knows everything and does whatever he wants…. So instead of blowing up at that I just brushed him off and elected someone else to do the job I assigned him with. Also on top of THAT I had to deal with about 10 people on the third floor excusing themselves from their duties to run outside and walk around picking up trash on the outside of the building…. suffice it to say I had to bring out the ugly side in me, and I had about 20 airman mad at me at that point.
Lord knows, I didn’t want to get mad or threaten anyone that day. W/S is supposed to be a quick thing… just do your bay detail and you’re done, that’s it. But some people can’t get that right for whatever reason…. Well, suffice it to say I held my ground with the help of my superior, and I got them to complete their task that was required of them.
For real. If I had it my way, I wouldn’t be the one having to bark sucky orders like “clean up this dorm”… I hate that crap. But I had to do it, myself, when I first got here, and that’s just the way things run around here. I don’t care if they’ve been in the air force longer than I have… I’m just doing my job at that point. I hate to yell. I’d rather meet everyone just be a cool AL, the guy that people can come to if they have problems that I might be able to help out with.
That’s another thing, I think I’ve been controlling my temper very well these days, compared to the way I was before. I don’ hold things in, I either brush them off or deal with them on the spot. I used to be an internalizer, as far as temper went.
Anyway, all I can say is that I’m thankful that things are going the way they are, and I think God has alot to do with that. I think alot of the time when I’m confronted with a decision of a certain magnitude, such as how to deal with an Airman who is apologizing to me for blowing up or how to deal with someone who won’t stop talking in class, I try to think, “What would be the right thing to do?”, “What would a wise person do in t his situation?”, and to be honest, I think of the big man, Jesus Christ. I know it sounds stupid, but really I would not be where I am today if I didn’t truly believe in the man who lived the perfect life. I know He’s there when I’m about to get severely angry, I just think… “God wouldn’t flip the fuck out, and neither will I.”
I wish I could convey all the happiness that fills my soul now. My life is great, my future is bright and clear, and God waves to me each day by blessing me with good friends and wisdom to make the right decisions. At first I thought this emotional high was just a mood swing, like the ones I used to have before joining the AF, but this “mood swing” has been on the high since the middle of BMT, so I’ve been feeling great for about 2 months now. One hell of a mood swing, eh?
-A1C Thomas Joseph Olaes