I'm an aviation mechanic, used to work on helicopters for the Marine Corps and just recently found a job working on commercial airplanes (737s). Between the two I tried my hand at college but wasted all of my 5 years of G.I. Bill to learn I really didn't want an engineering degree, and quit as I got into my senior classes, and took the next semester off to figure things out and really question if I wanted to continue college. Decided I didn't. Then I got some bad news about my health, which started with me losing vision in my left eye... turns out I have a rare auto immune disease that causes inflammation and it swelled my retina and did some permanent damage to my left eye. I can still see 20/20 with both open but yeah it's a constant pain in my ass seeing a slight distort here and there, but the VA takes care of me and gives me my bi-monthly shots, so I don't really have to worry about that financially. Anyways, back on point; I don't enjoy what I do anymore, in fact I'm not really sure I ever did. I went open contract with the Marines so me becoming a helicopter mechanic was pure chance, and I just tried to get a job with experience I already had. But they're working me a minimum of 55 hours a week. The pay is nice, but the job itself is extremely stressful and when I get home it's straight to bed only to wake up and do it all over again. I do get 2 days off but I just don't feel recharged after them. I do think it's getting pretty bad as the other day I just randomly started crying on one of my days off, I've even had some pretty dark thoughts go through my mind lately which I'm extremely ashamed of. I just don't know what to do. A part of me says keep going and I can retire in 15 years, maybe even less with the money I'm making... but another part of me thinks I'll do something to myself before I get there. Maybe it's just the new job, the new place, that's overly stressing me out, but I left the Marines for a reason, and it was because of the stress, I really don't want to go back to that life. I don't know, just wanted to see what you guys think, and honestly just to talk to some peoples.
Submitted May 03, 2019 at 03:11AM by SergeantofMargaritas http://bit.ly/2GWPIvU
