Moving To America
The first twenty years of my life I spent living outside of the United States, my parents are non-denominational Christian missionaries and they raised me in Papua New Guinea where they had found an unreached tribe, established a church, school, and built an airstrip so that the government could provide teachers and medical aid.
The family moved to America around the time I turned thirteen, we lived in Georgia for about a year then the mission organization my parents are with had them move to their headquarters in Orlando, Florida. Orlando is where I went to high school, actually, I ended up being homeschooled throughout most of high school and made most of my friends and social connections at our local church which has since shut down and I no longer really know anybody who attended there, but the memories are fond and I had a fun teenage experience that you could describe as fairly wholesome.
After graduating high school in 1999 I did not know what I wanted to do with my life and one of my parent’s friends suggested I attend one of the Torchbearer Bible Schools, an international organization of Bible Schools with locations spread across the globe.
So, shortly after graduating high school in 1999, I attended Bodenseehof in Germany where all of the students called Bode2k in reference to the Y2K conspiracy theory that all of the computers were going to fail when the year turned 2000. Then I went on to study in Austria in the spring of 2000 at a school called Tauernhof in the small town of Schladming.
I came home and not much longer after that September 11th occurred and a friend of mine who had student loans asked me to join the US Army with him as part of a buddy program. Well long story short, it turned out my “buddy” didn’t get his loans forgiven by the Army and he ended up not joining, he had planned it all out and was hellbent on becoming an infantryman and really pushed selecting that MOS or Military Occupational Service, he even took me to see Black Hawk Down in order to show me how great an infantry job could be.
Before he backed out on me we did go to MEPs in Tampa, Florida together and took the ASVAB, sort of the enlisted services version of an IQ test. Before taking the test they filled us up with water and had us go through a series of physical qualifications and all the while I kept drinking every time the soldier told us to “drink water.” Needless to say by the time it was time to take the ASVAB I had had far too much water and really needed to pee, but was told I could only go to the bathroom after taking the test.
That was the fastest test I ever took, I flew through the answers and came out of the testing facility ecstatic to finally be able to relieve myself. Ultimately I scored in the high 80s and was told I could select any MOS I wanted but my buddy was still gung ho at the time about us signing up together as infantry and I didn’t particularly care so I stuck with his decision to be trained by the infantry.
My friend, let me know that his debts were not going to be covered and that he was no longer going to join the service, he went on to be a pilot and actually flew soldiers to bordering countries of combat zones later in life.
About six months after I was in the Army, serving as an Infantry Mortar I received a letter from West Point stating that I had scored in the top 1 percentile of enlisted on my ASVAB and that I could receive a full scholarship to West Point in exchange for six years of active duty service. Ultimately I decided to decline the offer because I had no interest in being in the military for ten years.
Sometimes I regret that decision, but it is what it is.
I deployed to Kosovo on a peacekeeping mission and while there America invaded Iraq, so after finishing the tour of duty in Kosovo, I went to Iraq.
The summer after I was in Iraq I went out with a group of friends who wanted to get off post and explore Germany where we were stationed. That night I met a Fraulien who would ultimately become my wife. She had no interest in living the lifestyle the military provided and I really wanted to marry her so I left the Army and started living in Germany with my new wife.
I adopted her kid and we have two daughters together. Germany is nice but never somewhere I felt at home. I always felt homesick while living there and that I was only there because I was asked to stay for the relationship.
A few months just shy of 17 years passed of living in Germany with my family when my wife asked me for a divorce. One thing was for certain, I knew I would not thrive or enjoy life living in Germany separate from my wife and kids, I simply did not fit in and did not enjoy myself there. So I decided to move back to America.
It’s been a month since living in America, I have registered with the Veteran’s Affairs Hospital here in Orlando, Florida where I am living with family until I can figure out how to get back on my feet.
I am a paranoid schizophrenic and the VA decided to take me off two of my German prescribed anti psychotic medications to get a baseline of what I need and what they feel comfortable prescribing because in the past two years that I have been taking the medication consistently I gained 200 pounds and ballooned up to 403 pounds at my heaviest.
I was still in Germany last month which was June when I determined to go on a weight loss journey starting on the 19th of that month which was both Juneteenth and Father’s Day.
It has been a month since determining to lose the weight and I have lost exactly 20 pounds, hopefully, I can stay on only one form of medication for my schizophrenia, what I am currently on does not contribute to weight gain and I feel much more myself.
In future posts, I will write more about my weight loss journey.
In the meantime, I have been looking for ways to derive a sustainable income that is flexible with all of my doctor’s visits at the VA and the potential of dealing with manic episodes brought about by my Schizophrenia.
So far I have taken to starting a YouTube channel which I think I am mediocre at, an Etsy store, and a Patreon. I also document my weight loss journey regularly on OnlyFans but no takers yet.
So, yeah, that is me in a nutshell. Thanks for reading.
