So, if anyone happens to stumble across this that didn't get a link from Facebook, I suppose you are wondering 'Who the hell is this guy?'. My name is Brayton. Hi. How are you? Good, I hope. If not, well have a beer and join the rest of us.
I am currently in the military and am living overseas. I've only been here for a few weeks but I am really diggin' it. Its a completely foreign (HA!) experience. Everything is very different from what I'm used to and I kind of enjoy the feeling of being out of my element. Maybe that means I am in my element... I dunno. So where am I? Well, I'll keep that as vague as possible, but I will tell you that I work for AFN (American Forces Network) and I do things like radio DJ, video news stories, and radio & TV commercials. It's a really cool gig, and I feel blessed to be doing it.
Of course, I have my issues with it, as I'm sure most people have one thing or another they don't like about their job. But hey, I make do and live with it. It sucks being so far away from my family and friends, but its only temporary. Hopefully I don't lose any of the amazing friends I made before I came here.
Oh yeah, I was in Charleston, SC before I took the long flight overseas. That place is pretty awesome. I'm very impressed with the way that city has kept its charm while everyplace else seems to be in such a hurry to be so modern. Its still very much a city, but there is a sense of calm there that is lacking in most other big cities.
I met some really cool people there. (I'll use first names only) Mike, Jay, Aaron, Ginger Mike (or Ian, whatever he's going by these days), Nicole, Nicole (yes there's two!), Richie and Kortney (they go together), and Christin. I made her last because she probably had the most impact on me while I was there. One day I'll dedicate a post to her awesomeness (No sarcasm, I'm being serious).
Hopefully I get a chance to go back there in the future. I wouldn't be surprised if that is the place where I eventually settle down, after this whole military thing. Of course, I'll be finishing up undergrad and hopefully graduate school before or during the time I go there, so it may be a few years off. Better than not going back at all, though.
I feel like I'm just starting at the current time and going back from there, so I might as well continue that trend. Before I joined the military I was working at Best Buy and I must say, I absolutely hated it. I was playing too many video games and not enough time working on or caring about my future. So, I went and talked to a recruiter. Now, I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who might think joining the military is just for people who can't hack it in the real world, and to an extent you may be correct. It was the best decision I've made in my life though. It got me back on track. Broke me out of the giant slump I was in. That 12 months before I left for basic training were pretty bleak. I don't ever ever ever want to be like that again.
Before I worked at Best Buy I was a full-time student at Purdue University. That was a great place to learn, and I had some of the funnest times of my life while I was there. That being said, I was way too immature and had no idea how to handle the responsibility I had been given. I was a terrible student, had terrible study habits, and I cared more about having fun than getting my shit done. That has a lot to do with why I am where I am now.
There were a lot of life changing experiences for me at Purdue as well. I had a very serious girlfriend for close to 3 years. I had made up my mind that this was the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Unfortunately, I am really good at making relationships go haywire, so I'm a single now. I have been ever since for the most part, with a few heartbreaks and hiccups between then and now.
I lived in a fraternity for two years while I was at Purdue. What an experience that was. A lot of partying (as expected), a lot of really good friends and really good times, and a lot of really good neglecting of the purpose of college. No, the purpose of college isn't to get wasted and act like a dumbass... its to learn (surprise!). Yeah, if I had any regrets in my life (which I don't really, I like the person I turned out to be) I think it would be how terrible of a student I was while in college.
Before college I went to high school in a very small town in Indiana. This is where I made my best friends. Lifelong friends. I will always have those guys' backs, and I know they would always have mine. I'll save a lot of detail on this subject, because I think I'd like to really dig into it more at a later date... but I will say I am very lucky to have at least 5 or 6 people that I can call my best friend. All of them. Yeah... very lucky.
My parents, who did a helluva job raising me and my brother (we were total shitheads a lot of the time), have been divorced since I was like 2 years old. So, it's something that's always been there. They were amazing despite the fact, and I'm sure it wasn't easy for them. I never saw them fight, and the fact that they were divorced was never even an issue growing up. Its just the way it was. I give a lot of credit to them, I'm not sure I could've acted with such maturity. But hey, I don't have kids so I can't really say. They are pretty much the main influences in my life. My mother worked her ass off to make sure my brother and I always had what we needed, and my father has always been the sole stabilizing force for me. She keeps me happy, he keeps me grounded. Since joining the military, its been difficult always being away from them, and I am not a great at calling them like I should. Hopefully I can get better at that. I don't want to feel like I've taken them for granted, but I know I have.
I have 1 brother. He's my younger brother by 14 months, and honestly we are more like friends than brothers. I mean, yeah, we act like brothers, but we also have a lot of similar interests and I know I can talk to him about anything. I find our relationship very humorous sometimes. Even though I'm the older brother, we seem to alternate on who acts like the older brother. Sometimes its him, sometimes me. I like it that way. Yeah, he'll get his own post one day too.
History lesson concluded. Ya know, after writing this, its weird how looking back on your life can make you feel very fortunate for what you have become. I'm glad that everything has turned out the way it did.
a little bit? that was your longest post yet.
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