I needed military people that understood me

I needed military people that understood me

Chaunte:

I was finished with active duty in May of ‘09 and I had a lot of challenges as far as brand new city, brand new home. I found myself at first waking up at 0430, getting to the gym by 0500, started training clients immediately and I would get home at 9:00 or 10:00 at night, and I went on this for a while, until certain things started to hit me and my parents kind of, “Baby girl you're getting tired, you're doing a lot.”

How I coped was, when I was deployed I worked, you know you worked 12 hour shifts or you’re always busy when you are in the military active duty, so I was used to the go, go, go lifestyle. It was in those moments when I settled down where it got difficult, where I started realizing the circle of friends that I had weren’t the same. Civilian women, the things that they are concerned with kind of seemed trivial to me. Go shopping, getting the nails done, complaining about a bad Frappuccino. I started feeling anger build up inside and I still wouldn’t share it with anybody. I found that through somewhat with my parents understanding because my family is military, and I would call my brother who is active duty and I would talk to him about some of my issues and concerns. It was then that I realized that there was still more that I needed to do, and I needed to get back around the circle of military people that would understand me.