She was a tall half-Asian, half-Caucasian girl who had been quiet and awkward most of her first 23 years of existing. Not really able to speak Japanese, but spending money on classes to eventually learn, and spending time other people would have used for friends to read or write instead, she was a studious person to say the least. And she really didn't know how relationships were supposed to work. Don't get me wrong, she had been in relationships before, two-year ones, but she hadn't yet found out how to make one work out permanently. Was it her looks? No, she had confidence in that at least, sometimes. Was it her awkwardness? Her anti-socialness? Her occasionally desire to be alone reading or writing or just thinking? Was it her bouts of emotional instability? Was it her old-fashioned clothes?
And so, while Miss Oblivious was thinking and thinking about what was so wrong with her, she decided to not even think about dating anyone until she fixed whatever it was. She poured her attention into friends and family, graduating from college, and taking care of her fat cat. She spent time working with elderly people, learning how fleeting life could be, but that the Ultimate End isn't something to be afraid of or or even sad about. She learned that the best thing to do while living is to LIVE, and then spend the rest of the time telling the stories. She traveled two-thousand miles to visit her grandparents in Seattle, WA and San Francisco, CA, meeting her mom's father for the first time in years. She went walking with them, and those were the best, most relaxing walks she remembers to this day. She spent more time with her mom, who complained about getting older more often, even though her mom was nowhere near as old as the senior residents she worked for. So Miss Oblivious decided it was her mission to make her mom feel as young and beautiful as she believed her mom was. And then, she spent a semester alone in a small one-bedroom apartment with only her cat, some books, and used DVDs and a 14" TV to keep her company. She learned what it meant to live for yourself--going to the store to buy whatever, walking in the wind and rain just to get wet and cold, and jump into the blankets to read a book, only to fall asleep at the really good parts and have weird dreams.
Some nights she was lonely, and she felt something inside her cracking in half again and again each time she thought about what "being alone" really means. At first she thought the cracking was her heart--that little muscle that actually has nothing to do with the biochemical process of feeling sadness, but is where the splitting pain occurs anyway. But day after day, night after night, week after week, and then month after month she realized it was her old self splitting off into someone new. Like genes unzipping in mitosis, like an egg breaking to reveal a baby chick, or perhaps more like a snake shedding its skin, she was undergoing a breathtaking change. It was painful at first, but then it became exhilarating.
So she was single for over a year, thinking things through, looking at life again through the eyes of an individual. She graduated from college and made the big decision to join the Navy, despite having never thought of joining before. She was wary, scared of giving her life away to an institution that might abuse her, but she had her reasons. 1) She didn't want to pay off student loans the rest of her life like her mom did, still did after twenty years. 2) She knew already that her English degree would only land her a desk job until she paid off her loans, or until she became a pro writer, whichever came first. 3) She wanted to travel before she settled down, trying to take her mom's advice to wait to have kids until she fulfilled her premarital bucket list. And so, she kept her chin up as she walked into the recruiting office in a pair of sandals, tights, and a blue dress. She scored high on the ASVAB prep test, enough to have the recruiters talking about Nuclear Engineering. And then she blew the actual ASVAB out of the water.
After studying and acing not only the ASVAB but the Nuclear Aptitude test meant specifically for potential Nuclear Engineers,the recruiters at the MEPS testing center explained to her that there weren't any female spots open and that she had to pick a backup until she could switch her contract. She was disappointed, frustrated, even angry, but she decided to wait it out. During the first six months before basic training, she was in the Advanced Electronics and Computer Field. She trained under the title, AECF, studied the START guide, and even moved to California under that title. It was only after nagging her recruiters back East, signing a waiver about her lack of college-level Mathematics, and then endless months of DEPping in every Monday only to have to wait until next week, next time.
Oddly enough, waiting for the Nuke contract was just about as frustrating as waiting to close the distance in a long-distance relationship. And whether it was for herself or someone else, she was never very good at waiting. Maybe that was it... Maybe, she just wasn't good at waiting. She realized this a few months in and decided to change it. She stopped thinking about how long it might take to get the new contract, about how, if she couldn't get one before she shipped out that she would be stuck with AECF rate instead of NF--she just stopped thinking and delved into her work without hesitation. She worked part-time at the retirement home, she learned how to ballroom dance, bought a belly dancing skirt, revamp her old wardrobe, and read a mountain of books. And then, after the six months of waiting she got a call one Monday.
"Hey Petty Officer, how's it going?" She said, curious to know why her recruit was calling right after she had DEP'ed in with him earlier that same day.
"Hey Nakamura, are you sitting down?"
"Noo...why?" She looked at the dining room chair speculatively, wrinkling her dark brows.
"Guess what?"
"What." By this time she was getting slightly agitated at the suspense.
"Your contract came in. I'm holding it right now. I'm gonna scan it and email it to you, and all you have to do is sign and send it back. How's that?"
At first she didn't know what the hell he was talking about, and then it clicked. She couldn't stop smiling while she said, "Sure, I'll do that. Thanks Petty Officer, thanks for all your hard work." And after hanging up she felt anything less than jumping up and down with joy wouldn't express how happy and relieved she felt. It was over, the wait for the contract was over. It made the next six months of waiting to go into basic training easy-peasy.
But that wasn't the only waiting that ended...
Around the same time a young man she had met at the MEPS center back in Michigan confessed to her through Facebook, albeit somewhat indirectly. His name was Derek. He was as tall as her, though he would like for it written that he was half an inch taller, (but the Navy didn't count half-inches), and he was younger, fresh out of high school. His eyesight was so bad he had to go to an optometrist to get a waiver signed so he could join, even though he also smoked the ASVAB and applied to Nuclear Engineering. He was confident in his mathematical knowledge, and tinkered with electronics just to see how they worked and get them working again. He wanted to join because he needed direction, discipline, and money. He wanted to get away from his impersonal family and start his own life, somewhere down the road get married and have a flock of little children, raising them up with someone he loved.
He didn't expect to meet Miss Oblivious in the middle of his breaking relationship with a girl from Hawai'i. He definitely didn't expect to meet her at the testing center. But he did, and they hit it off. They rode the same carpool down, along with another guy. That first night they left the hotel and walked a couple miles to get Jets pizza, sharing it innocently in the lobby with their carpool mate. The next morning they were off to MEPS, tired at f***, and dragging themselves to get their medical waivers signed and processed. They got a ride back, listening to Rock and nodding off, expecting never to see each other again. But Derek talked to his recruiter, who was the same recruiter for Miss Oblivious, and he was able to get another day at MEPS with her, this time to sign their final contracts. She was signing AECF, he was signing on as a Master-at-Arms (MA). Neither of them got the Nuke job they originally wanted...
(Continued in next post)
And so, while Miss Oblivious was thinking and thinking about what was so wrong with her, she decided to not even think about dating anyone until she fixed whatever it was. She poured her attention into friends and family, graduating from college, and taking care of her fat cat. She spent time working with elderly people, learning how fleeting life could be, but that the Ultimate End isn't something to be afraid of or or even sad about. She learned that the best thing to do while living is to LIVE, and then spend the rest of the time telling the stories. She traveled two-thousand miles to visit her grandparents in Seattle, WA and San Francisco, CA, meeting her mom's father for the first time in years. She went walking with them, and those were the best, most relaxing walks she remembers to this day. She spent more time with her mom, who complained about getting older more often, even though her mom was nowhere near as old as the senior residents she worked for. So Miss Oblivious decided it was her mission to make her mom feel as young and beautiful as she believed her mom was. And then, she spent a semester alone in a small one-bedroom apartment with only her cat, some books, and used DVDs and a 14" TV to keep her company. She learned what it meant to live for yourself--going to the store to buy whatever, walking in the wind and rain just to get wet and cold, and jump into the blankets to read a book, only to fall asleep at the really good parts and have weird dreams.
Some nights she was lonely, and she felt something inside her cracking in half again and again each time she thought about what "being alone" really means. At first she thought the cracking was her heart--that little muscle that actually has nothing to do with the biochemical process of feeling sadness, but is where the splitting pain occurs anyway. But day after day, night after night, week after week, and then month after month she realized it was her old self splitting off into someone new. Like genes unzipping in mitosis, like an egg breaking to reveal a baby chick, or perhaps more like a snake shedding its skin, she was undergoing a breathtaking change. It was painful at first, but then it became exhilarating.
So she was single for over a year, thinking things through, looking at life again through the eyes of an individual. She graduated from college and made the big decision to join the Navy, despite having never thought of joining before. She was wary, scared of giving her life away to an institution that might abuse her, but she had her reasons. 1) She didn't want to pay off student loans the rest of her life like her mom did, still did after twenty years. 2) She knew already that her English degree would only land her a desk job until she paid off her loans, or until she became a pro writer, whichever came first. 3) She wanted to travel before she settled down, trying to take her mom's advice to wait to have kids until she fulfilled her premarital bucket list. And so, she kept her chin up as she walked into the recruiting office in a pair of sandals, tights, and a blue dress. She scored high on the ASVAB prep test, enough to have the recruiters talking about Nuclear Engineering. And then she blew the actual ASVAB out of the water.
After studying and acing not only the ASVAB but the Nuclear Aptitude test meant specifically for potential Nuclear Engineers,the recruiters at the MEPS testing center explained to her that there weren't any female spots open and that she had to pick a backup until she could switch her contract. She was disappointed, frustrated, even angry, but she decided to wait it out. During the first six months before basic training, she was in the Advanced Electronics and Computer Field. She trained under the title, AECF, studied the START guide, and even moved to California under that title. It was only after nagging her recruiters back East, signing a waiver about her lack of college-level Mathematics, and then endless months of DEPping in every Monday only to have to wait until next week, next time.
Oddly enough, waiting for the Nuke contract was just about as frustrating as waiting to close the distance in a long-distance relationship. And whether it was for herself or someone else, she was never very good at waiting. Maybe that was it... Maybe, she just wasn't good at waiting. She realized this a few months in and decided to change it. She stopped thinking about how long it might take to get the new contract, about how, if she couldn't get one before she shipped out that she would be stuck with AECF rate instead of NF--she just stopped thinking and delved into her work without hesitation. She worked part-time at the retirement home, she learned how to ballroom dance, bought a belly dancing skirt, revamp her old wardrobe, and read a mountain of books. And then, after the six months of waiting she got a call one Monday.
"Hey Petty Officer, how's it going?" She said, curious to know why her recruit was calling right after she had DEP'ed in with him earlier that same day.
"Hey Nakamura, are you sitting down?"
"Noo...why?" She looked at the dining room chair speculatively, wrinkling her dark brows.
"Guess what?"
"What." By this time she was getting slightly agitated at the suspense.
"Your contract came in. I'm holding it right now. I'm gonna scan it and email it to you, and all you have to do is sign and send it back. How's that?"
At first she didn't know what the hell he was talking about, and then it clicked. She couldn't stop smiling while she said, "Sure, I'll do that. Thanks Petty Officer, thanks for all your hard work." And after hanging up she felt anything less than jumping up and down with joy wouldn't express how happy and relieved she felt. It was over, the wait for the contract was over. It made the next six months of waiting to go into basic training easy-peasy.
But that wasn't the only waiting that ended...
Around the same time a young man she had met at the MEPS center back in Michigan confessed to her through Facebook, albeit somewhat indirectly. His name was Derek. He was as tall as her, though he would like for it written that he was half an inch taller, (but the Navy didn't count half-inches), and he was younger, fresh out of high school. His eyesight was so bad he had to go to an optometrist to get a waiver signed so he could join, even though he also smoked the ASVAB and applied to Nuclear Engineering. He was confident in his mathematical knowledge, and tinkered with electronics just to see how they worked and get them working again. He wanted to join because he needed direction, discipline, and money. He wanted to get away from his impersonal family and start his own life, somewhere down the road get married and have a flock of little children, raising them up with someone he loved.
He didn't expect to meet Miss Oblivious in the middle of his breaking relationship with a girl from Hawai'i. He definitely didn't expect to meet her at the testing center. But he did, and they hit it off. They rode the same carpool down, along with another guy. That first night they left the hotel and walked a couple miles to get Jets pizza, sharing it innocently in the lobby with their carpool mate. The next morning they were off to MEPS, tired at f***, and dragging themselves to get their medical waivers signed and processed. They got a ride back, listening to Rock and nodding off, expecting never to see each other again. But Derek talked to his recruiter, who was the same recruiter for Miss Oblivious, and he was able to get another day at MEPS with her, this time to sign their final contracts. She was signing AECF, he was signing on as a Master-at-Arms (MA). Neither of them got the Nuke job they originally wanted...
(Continued in next post)
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