I was planning to join the military after high school. It was a 3 hour drive to the closest MEPS (military entrance processing station), so the local recruiters only made the trip out there once a week. I already had my date set when another guy dropped out, so my recruiter asked if I was interested in going a week earlier. I said absolutely, because I was dead et on being in the Army, so what difference did one more week make?

So that’s how I enlisted on Sept 5th, 2001…

I took a first date call in the park cuz I didn’t want to stop hanging out with my friends, I saw a big dog walk past and say “dang that’s a big ass dog”, and the apologized for the cursing, turns out that’s what made my husband fall for me

Forgot a lighter which has so far led to 2 weddings and 5 kids?

In the first week of school, a buddy and I wandered around with beer and joints to various dorms but forgot a lighter. Asking around for one, we made a new friend. Fast forward a couple years, “new friend” let me know about a home for rent opening up. I rounded up some folks (including original buddy) and we rented it. Except one guy was gone for the summer. So, a gal came from out of town to live with there. We became friends, she fell in love and ended up moving here. Between her, her best friend and sister they’ve had 5 kids with partners mostly from that original friend circle.

So, if I had remembered a lighter way back in first year, we wouldn’t have put a house of folks together, wouldn’t have met gal and her pals and thus a few weddings and kids would’ve happened differently or not at all.

Finally going to a doctor to get my tinnitus checked out. Long story short, it’s fucking brain tumors. Remember kids, don’t ignore health shit.

I did a show at the local theatre when I was 17. First time doing theatre. I had been homeschooled and sheltered my whole life for religious reasons.

Since then I’ve deconstructed my faith, learned I’m trans, have had sex without getting married gasp, tried drugs, came up with my own values and beliefs, all the usual stuff, and it can all be traced back to that small impulsive choice to do something that intimidated me and try theatre.

I mean, I’m sure I would’ve got out eventually but I’m happy things happened the way they did.

Was bored one day and decided to watch Bojack Horseman since it had that guy from Arrested Development in it. It was weird, but funny, so I kept watching.

After a while, I started to recognize a lot of myself and things similar to my life, and since I was seeing someone else do this stuff, I knew that it wasn’t healthy or necessarily supposed to be funny if it were a real person.

It helped me to start understanding that all my life, I’ve had horrible depression that lead me to really sabotage myself and almost every relationship I’ve ever had with anyone.

I ended up talking to my doctor, and it turned out to be something that was very easy to fix, and as soon as I got on the proper medicine, I almost immediately started experiencing life in a new way.

It helped me come to better terms with a lot of my childhood, and I no longer felt a crushing weight every day and could deal with day to day events in a healthy way.

I’m still a damaged person who doesn’t quite understand a lot of things I think “normal” people understand, but I’m able to identify it and talk about it instead of it making me angry and frustrated.

I’m in an overall significantly better place now. I understand myself a good bit more, and I’ve come a long way in being a better person. I still carry a lot of emotional weight not that I realize all the bad things I’ve done to so many people, and I frequently feel the loss of those relationships, but it’s more a reminder of how far I’ve come instead of something actively hurting me still after all these years.

I really liked the show, and there’s a lot of fun things in it, but it’s hard for me to watch now, as it reminds me too much of old me. I do really love Paul F Tomkins though and listen to him on Threedom and I just saw him on the Comedy Bang Bang tour.

I never expected a talking horse to turn my life around when nothing else did, but I won’t complain.