Random thoughts(needle)

 The needle

Every now and then I think about a needle. Not because of the pain. Not because of the infection. Not even because it nearly put me in the hospital.

I think about it because that needle changed the direction of my life.

When I graduated high school, I was seventeen years old and moved away almost immediately. I had plans. None of them involved the military. I was supposed to go to work for a guy who ran a large hay operation. By the time I got there, he had already filled all his positions.

Instead, he helped me get a job milking cows. I lost that job, and that led to another dairy.

That led to another type of dairy job. Then one day, while helping the calf crew, I climbed into a pickup truck and felt a sharp pain in my ankle. A used needle had poked through a bucket and stuck me directly in the ankle.

What followed was weeks of pain, doctors, antibiotics, and a lot of uncertainty. I nearly ended up in the hospital. Then, after finally recovering and returning to work, I lost that dairy job too.

At the time, it felt like one setback after another.

I didn't know what I was going to do next. That's when my dad suggested the military. I talked to the Air Force. They couldn't guarantee the job I wanted

Then the Army. I couldn't be an Air Traffic Controller like my dad. Pretty sure it was because I didn't do well enough on the ASVAB, but the recruiters lied and said the slots were full. 

One conversation led to another. We talked about helicopters.  Apache's? Nope, can't fly on them. Chinooks? Nope, they look like a dumpster. Blackhawks? Oh, yeah, that looks cool. 

One decision led to another. Where do you want to go for your first duty station? IDK. Are you married? Nope. Do you want to get married? Nope. Go to Germany!

Before long, I was headed to basic training and eventually Germany.

Looking back now, I sometimes laugh at how random it all seems. If that hay job had worked out, maybe I would never have gone to the dairy. If I had never gone to the dairy, maybe I would never have been stuck by that needle. If I never get stuck, maybe I never lose that job.

If I had never lost that job, maybe I would never have joined the Army. And if I never join the Army, my entire life probably looks completely different.

At the time, all I could see was a series of bad breaks. Today, I see a series of events that changed everything.

Life is funny that way. Sometimes the moments that feel like disasters are actually crossroads.

You just don't know it yet.