The dice are in another's hand - posted at 23:12

Today has been a fairly devastating day.

Y'know the type, one of those days where you begin to seriously think about some pretty big choices you've made in your life and you begin to ponder how it will affect the choices you will make down the road -- and you realize that it may even affect your ability to make a choice.

The choices that just a few in lofty places make trickle down to me. They affect whether I will be able to stay in the career field that I chose, want to stay in, and around which all of my goals revolve.

They affect other things that many others likely take for granted -- like whether I will be able to ever be physically co-located with the man that I have chosen as a mate and want to marry.

A large part of my frustration, anger, and sadness stems from the fact that I am a very goal-oriented person. I always have been. I set a goal, make a plan, and either achieve it or I don't -- and that success has always depended on my actions and the decisions that I make. There hasn't been much left to chance.

Now, however, I am no longer controlling the variables, and neither is anyone else that I know -- someone that I have no relationship holds all the keys, and my plans live or die by what they decide. In a way this is like applying for college, competing for my scholarships, at least in the way that some nameless, faceless person was deciding my fate -- but it's so different in the way that their decisions were based upon my merit and the merit of those I was competing against. Now, I am facing off with a document that sets "policies," "procedures," and "regulations." There is no grey area. There is no meritocracy. You either fit in Box A or Box B.

And if "you fit into box A" means "you will revert to another career field" or "you will be separated from the one you love for another three years," well, then, it sure sucks to be you.

And by "you," I mean "me."

Jared commented:

Yeah, I hate Randolph...

I'm putting down my dream sheet but it's a 1-in-a-1000 that they'll actually give me any of the jobs on it. Someone's going to look at what I want to do and say: "Screw you. You don't know what's good for you. You'll never make colonel unless you do what WE want you to do." Like I care about making colonel.

So I think me and the AF will have to part ways.

Good luck. When do are you up for PCS?

Jared commented:

Btw, I like the new design of the title banner...

Jitterbean Girl commented:

Well, I guess that the best thing you can do is say that you don't want to make colonel on your T-ODP. Maybe they'll actually take it into account, and hopefully they won't just say, 'AH-HA! FINALLY! The perfect candidate for force shaping!!!!' Besides, I figure the Air Force owes you at least one really cool assignment because you were stuck at Goodfellow for so long.

I'm locked into a three-year assignment here because Alaska is considered overseas so it is impossible for me to move before then. I know 'locked in' implies bad things, but I love Alaska, and the only reason I use that term is because it's messing up the plans that Cory and I had made. But it's the new PCS initiatives the deal with time-on-station for joint spouse assignments that's got me really upset now -- but given that this is all work-related I probably shouldn't be going into full rant mode here in such an easily-accessed forum.

Thanks for the kudos on the header -- I figured it was time for Sienna to star in one :) I may be posting more of her winter shenanigans on here later!