The Label That Followed Me
A jack of all trades. For most of my life, that phrase followed me like a warning label. In the military, it was a badge of honor. The highest-functioning individuals I served alongside were the ones who could master their environment completely. Learning the equipment as if it were part of your own body was not optional. It was a survival instinct. That instinct was rewarded. Merit awards, advancement, and trust went to those who excelled at everything — mechanical, electrical, and human.
Reading people came with that territory. How others responded to your actions was part of the training. At times, that human awareness extended to understanding foreign cultures. Functioning in relief efforts, navigating unfamiliar environments, building trust across language barriers. The jack of all trades did not just survive in that world. He thrived.
Then I left that world, and everything I was built for no longer made sense on paper.
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