Bumped into a high school friend for the first time in 30 years.

[slightlv]

84. Getaway plan?!

I remember doing that even before I hit the pre-teen years. Grew up in a small town, too. We had race riots in the high school a couple of times, tho... and I ended on the other side (against teachers and cops). Felt like the proverbial black sheep there all my life. No matter what I tried or how hard I tried, I could never fit in anywhere. Always ended up a loner. However, being female, it was just assumed I'd get married right out of high school, so the "guidance counselor" never even discussed college options with me. BTW... I graduated in the top 10 of my class year.

To get to college, it looked like my way through was via the military. Dad was proud, I got to travel a little (stateside) and saw one field of work that was NOT going to be my lifelong profession! (LOL) I may have stayed in longer if I'd been in a different career field, but options were limited back then for females in the Air Force - especially one who didn't quite hit the 5' mark. I did, btw, make it through college (even tho I had a husband fighting me on it all the way -- even divorcing me with the parting words "now you'll never get that degree). What is it with deep south southerners and educated, intellectual women?! Grrrrr

Now retired, I recently realized while I may have left active duty, I never really left the mindset. It hit me that my entire work life (minus a few years here and there) have been spent in either direct government work or as a contractor, including the entire last decade and a half as a GS on post. But I loved the people and culture that I was continually exposed to in the environment, and while I still ran into bigoted (and especially) sexist soldiers, I wore my "bleeding heart liberal" badge proudly -- and still do!