You ever have one of those days when everything seems to fall apart. Or that one bad day turn into a week? Month? Or even a year? Of course we have. You get up one morning and everything is going great. Cannot say perfect because you have not won the lottery or fell into an inheritance from a long-lost rich relative. Then the next thing you know things start to fall apart. You get the news of an operation upcoming that you have a bad feeling about. Next, you are on patrol, something does not feel right, and then it happens. An IED explodes and your life is forever changed.
This has become all too common place over the last almost two decades of war. America is facing many of those challenges of war from the outset.  Yet today I am not talking about the curve ball thrown by fate with the IED. I am talking about the curve balls thrown by fate, her sister or one hacked off mother.
You are probably asking what curve balls are you dealing with Travis that has caused you to write this. Well I’ll use some of them in examples later on yet before we get there you need to look at what categories they are, discuss some of those issues and preventive measures that we can take, and finally what steps can we do once we are already there and fate has become a rather vengeful person.
Curve Ball out of Left Field
As life goes on what comes out of left? Well they are usually the moments that we reflect upon. Some reflection of course happens while we are going through the process and some of the other curve balls down the road if we are not careful and deal with all the initial issues. Everyday a veteran goes through different curve balls. They could be educational, physical, psychological, or financial in substance.  Many of the coping mechanisms that we learned on active duty still apply to our situations today yet we seem to have lost some of the support network. Okay let us be honest; we lost a lot of our support network when we left service. Now that we are honest with ourselves, you see that many of the sounding boards that we had are gone. This limits the amount of people that we can discuss our issues with. On top of that, our core group has probably be disrupted. How do we deal with that? What can we do to ensure our well-being?
When those curve balls come flying at us in the batter box, we need to be able to stand and take our swings.  It is just a matter of waiting for the right pitch to swing at.
Educational
Besides the obvious reason education is a curve ball, i.e. we need the degree for a job outside military service; education is a minefield full of different hurdles, roadblocks, and flying objects that seem to hit us head on. For those who are entering education after service you must consistently be engaged. The moment you stop engaging your academic counselor or your department is the moment you will get broadsided.
The initial curve ball that comes your way in education is that elusive course for your major. It is wise to talk with your academic counselor early to create an educational track for you to follow especially, if you are planning to utilize your post-9/11 or Forever GI Bill. The elusive course what is it? The University system is designed to keep you taking courses for either four, six, or twelve years depending on your educational goals. As you have the GI Bill available, it is advantageous to make the most of this opportunity. Now there is not a minimum, you can take a maximum though, in a given semester depending on your course level. The max you can take for a bachelor is 18, a master is 15 and a PhD is 12. Now this sometimes varies from school to school. Also depending on your GPA and how you structure your courses, you may take more with the approval of your academic counselor and Dean. However, I caution you about taking more due to course burn out. Yet even with this track, you run the risk of not being able to get that one course depending on how fast you are tracking through to reach your degree.
With the colleges and universities trying to make money they schedule courses out much like the military schedules its stand-downs. Months and years in advance. Part of this is so that they can offer as many courses as possible in the shortest amount of time. The other reason is so that they can ensure all the courses are offered. Even if they only appear in the catalog once every three or four years.
The other educational curve ball is that of the dropped course. This curve ball affects more than just our course load and assignments if you are utilizing the GI Bill. This is because it can cause a over-payment in benefits which will incur a debt. The debt is not taken out of the subsequent payments they bill you shortly after it happens. The two times it has happened to me the VA debt notice came 45 days after the course was dropped. When you are living on a strict budget, it of course causes some choppy waters due to the unplanned expense.
Physical
Our physical lives can sometimes throw us curve balls too. Remember the statistic that said military retirees’ life expectancy after service was 10 years? Recent studies now compare active duty to reserve retiree. Yet, very few want to put a number of years. One source, Stars and Stripes, states that the average life expectancy is 19.6 years for an active duty and 21.5 years for a reserve enlisted member. I’m not say look out here comes the final pitch and that you are going to die. The last study was done in 2009 before many of the changes with the VA and medical advances. Additionally there is a lot said to how you take care of yourself such as eating habits, exercise routine, and general lifestyle. However we do have to be mindful of our physical ailments that cause curve balls in life.
Recently my mother a medically retired Chief Petty Officer broke her figure due to an accident. This caused her to be out of work for three weeks. You can start racking your brain now about the trickle-down effect that this accident caused my parents budget. While she has service connected disability due to arthritis and her typing for so many years this impacted her current job. The added expense of physical therapy, x-rays, doctor visits and time-off work to deal with these mount up quick and can often be overwhelming. This disruption in our daily lives can lead to other issues as many times accidents occur when we are doing this to relieve stress, Most commonly the accident impacts a stress reliever in our lives.
While my mom was lucky not many people are. Some of the curve balls happen to those with non-service connected injuries and they do not have insurance. When this happens the individual, maybe you, would be looking at a medical bill on the cheap side of $1,500 to bones that could exceed $10,000. According to Healthcare.gov the average cost of fixing a broken leg costs $7,500.
Psychological
The psychological curve ball can happen at any time. To anyone.
Psychological issues appear in many forms. If we were to believe the major news networks of CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC then the biggest issue facing military veterans is PTSD. *much sarcasm here* Look out every military veteran has it and they could snap at any time keep your other employees safe watch them closely. Okay now that the sarcasm is out-of-the-way. PTSD is a serious issue that many veterans do face. However, veterans are not alone in this. PTSD is just that post-traumatic stress disorder. I can occur to anyone regardless of military service or not. Your childhood friend. You know the one that married their college sweetheart and lives in the Midwest. Yeah that one. The one that calls you every time they announce a tornado watch on the TV. Yup that friend is showing signs of PTSD from the last time that tornado hit within a mile of their home in Moore, OK outside of Tinker, AFB.
Anxiety and depressions are also not unique friends to only the military veteran. Many people from all walks of life are dealing with anxiety and depression. This can occur due to numerous of scenarios. Anything can start anxiety and depression from tests, to finals, latest job announcements, etc. For veterans there are many options available to deal with both anxiety and depression. Many start with the VA. Other resources include your personal physician.  Sometimes it is as simple as talking to a friend or family member. The point is finding someone to talk to.
Financial
The last curve ball impacts us the most. This is the financial curve ball. Many times it is the loss of a job, retirement, automobile troubles, home repair. The list can go on and on. It is important for us to ensure that our families are financially sound. Yet how do we get there? Many of us have grown up in a culture of me, me, me and now, now, now. You probably know the term “Keeping up with the Jones’†I admit I was there. You have set expectations and obligations to your position at work right? You justify the expenditure, credit card, and other luxuries. Yet when does it stop? The problem is, unless you know you are doing it you will never consciously stop.
So what happens after you have made the grueling decision to get out of debt?
That is when the hard work begins. You create your emergency funds and begin paying off debt. Then it happens.
Your starter in the car begins to go.
You think to yourself thankfully that the family has another car that can be used. It will take some effort for the family to get use too but it can be done. Then the next pitch happens.
Another curve ball.
You take it to the mechanic and find that it is going to cost roughly $450 to get it fixed. Then another pitch.
Yup you guessed it another curve ball.
The kitchen sink backs up. You buy a bottle of drain declogger just find it doesn’t work. Then you get sulfuric acid and pour it down the drain vent and again. It doesn’t work. You take the pipes apart from under the sink and run a snake through it to fix it. Nope, no clog that you can reach. You are forced to call the plumber. Your advantage is they do free estimates and find that it will cost $288 to rotor rooter the pipe.  You cross your fingers because if the rotor rooter doesn’t work they have to replace buried pipe. You are told that if it doesn’t clear it that low-end you are looking at $1,000 and high-end could be $2,500.
What do you do?
Your finances do not have that kind of cash and you are still trying to get out of debt. You weigh your options and apply for another card to get you out of the mess. Or you ask your current lender to raise your balance. Maybe you call you parents to help you get the repair done.
Six steps to get back in the game
No matter what life is throwing at you right now, there are options for you to succeed. You have to look at the future. No matter the problem there are solutions. Many times you are too close to the situation to see that the escape is right next door.
- take a step back
- breathe
- look around
- seek help or advice
- develop a plan
- put the plan into action
My mentor gave me a piece of advice once. He said, “See the fire in front of the door. It is right there what are you going to do? “ I ran scenarios in my head and could think of a way to fix it. “Stop trying to go through the fire. Use the window to the right or left.†He paused for it to sink into me and then continued, “The solutions are all around you. Sometimes you are to focused on the problem to take the step back and look around.â€
Just as my mentor told me that I too am telling you there are solutions all around you. You have to sometimes take a step out of the batter-box take a couple of practice swings and step back up to the plate.
Reference: https://www.stripes.com/
https://www.healthcare.gov/why-coverage-is-important/protection-from-high-medical-costs/
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