In my last essay, I wrote about using what you have—programs, mentors, and communities—to rebuild life after service. This piece tells the same story, but through a different lens. Beneath every decision I made were ideas I first encountered in classrooms: theories about institutions, identity, and human behavior that, at the time, felt abstract. Only later did I realize they were maps for how real life unfolds.

Veterans often hear the same advice: use your resources, build your network, get involved. It sounds right, but it’s vague. Which resources? What kind of involvement? And how do you know if any of it will actually matter later?

Boot camp forced me to mingle and struggle with strangers, who found me strange, in a strange space. Over time, the strangeness became familiar through my eleven years in uniform. In civilian life, I’m taught to design it away. I still wonder which one makes me more free.

Even with education, skills, and intention, I felt pulled toward roles that align with how the world sees veterans.

Veterans' journeys from enlistment to civilian life are routinely framed as paths of opportunity and empowerment. But underneath the promise of liberation, what we find is yet another form of containment.

I recall being marveled at the ridiculous efficiency of getting my hair shaved on day one, or was it day two, of boot camp.

One civilian colleague pointed out something that stuck with me: when you factor in the entire compensation package military pay is substantial. But at the time, I called bullshit.

For years after I separated, I would ask myself: What do you mean, sacrifice? Thank you for your service—for what?

Life doesn't come with a clear map. When designers face problems too messy to define, we dump everything into a space where it can be seen, moved, and connected. That's what I did with my own life.

Because, letmein.

The challenge of veteran employment isn't simply translating military skills into civilian job titles

It may have gone something like this.

By reflecting on my military experience, I illustrate the process of institutionalization, awakening and reframining, and reorientation.

Veterans must learn to identify, assemble, and coordinate disparate civilian resources while simultaneously discovering their personal mission and purpose.