Posted on 10/30/2013 12:22:29 AM PDT by jy8z
At what age and how did you decide to leave the safety and comfort of your parents home? I've heard so many interesting takes locally, it got me to wondering on a larger scale.
Enlisted in the USAF at 18 in 1970. only went home to visit but I did move back to the endless mountain region of PA and been here since.
1 week short of my 18th birthday...to get married...husband was stationed at MacDill AFB in Tampa, FL...now it’s 47 years, 5 kids and 13 grandchildren later...
17. Never looked back.
I left for college at the age of 19, and mentally felt like a visitor every time I came back.
I made it permanent after the second year. Dropped out of college and went solo.
It’s been a ride, and there’s very little I would change given the opportunity of a do-over.
Joined the Marine Corps at age 18. For young adults who want to get out on their own and are worried about coming up with rent money, joining the military is the best way to accomplish that. Your pay is crappy but you get a cot and three meals a day while learning a lot of life lessons. By the time your 4-year hitch is over, you should have plenty of money saved up to get a decent apartment and should have no problem getting a good job. Employers love to hire ex-military as they prove to be dependable, mature and trustworthy.
I moved out of the parents' house after spending one year on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Could NOT take it!! Got my own apartment and worked in an IBM warehouse until the company sent me to school to become a computer programmer. That was when I actually started being able to afford my apartment.
Amazing thing was what my only child - a daughter - just did: After absolutely hating her job as a store manager for a snotty clothing company, she blanketed the east coast with her resume and got a job a state away from us. Found an apartment in four days and started her job one week after accepting her new position. She wasn't even fully hired, just on a "probationary" period. Now she's a solid hire and has set company records for performance as a new hire. I am humbled by her accomplishments!!!
In 1989 I moved out at 19 years and 2 weeks.
I was married almost a year later, right before my 20th birthday.
I did live with both my inlaws and my mom briefly sometime over the next year. (Transition to army life was rough.)
Went into the Army after High School in 1969, did 4 years and came back to West TX and went to work for the Sheriffs Department. After 5 1/2 years with the SO I went full time into the oil business and have been here ever since. 3 daughters and 3 grandkids.
Me too, but the stocks on our rifles were made of wood.
USAF Special Orders
I was 18. The day after I got my drivers license I drove to Vermont for a weekend vacation. I liked the place so much that I moved up here. That was in 1986.
In 1975, I moved to the dorm in college at 18, came back for a few weeks after the end of the school year in 1976 at 19, then joined the Air Force.
18 in a 65 Impala to college then the US Army. Married at 19 and still married 35 years later.
18...drafted....its been a long strange trip since then....8^)
Just turned 18 when I left home in ‘61 for the U.S.N.
Vietnam caught me at the end of my 4yr enlistment and I spent 6yrs.
At 17, I was told that I was no longer welcome in the house and that I needed to find a new place to live.
Got out of college in May. I was gone by July. So, 21 years old. 30 come thing years ago.
17...3 months before my 18th birthday, shared a place w/ a roommate who moved out a year after...lived by myself for a long time and never once moved back home. Worked full-time, went to school full-time and made my way up through the ranks at work to a mgt. position.
Contrast that to today’s generation...where I have three adult step-children who seem to take turns cycling through our door “just for a little while till they’re back on their feet” - but in every case as the result of bad decisions and laziness. The concept of learning from ones mistakes, or creating a life of their own, is lost on them.
I was 15. Been planning for a few months, ripped up all recent pictures, gathered some items and packed my backpack and left with an army blanket roll. That era was different and there were plenty of freefloating souls. Got a job, found a roommate, Found my own place, took courses at a prestigious university, and eventually married a sailor by the end of my 16th year.
Had to contact fam and get permission to wed. They gave it and were relieved. From a UMC background and all the kids ran away (trendy. like cutting today), I was the only one that didn’t return.
Kids can never do this today, finding jobs and renting apartments. Kids have no freedom.
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