Mama Kat Thursday: My Other Fictional Life

Today's Mama Kat topic is intriguing. It's speculative fiction  about an alternate line of reality:
"What if I HAD to go back in time and choose a different career path--what I would choose?"

An Air Force Basic Training Flight Photo from October 1975; not my flight,
but a sister flight that was there when I was. I wore the same outfit.

I joined the Air Force right after I graduated high school in 1975.
It wasn't the popular thing to do at the time.
Vietnam had only ended two years before and the military was not held in high regard by the public. Only two other students from my class joined the service.

I served 4 years and 10 months, having extended my enlistment to take an overseas assignment. My plan from the start had been to serve only one term, get my G.I. Bill, then get out and go to school.

The people I worked for loved me and begged me to re-enlist.
I was a medic in the Labor & Delivery unit at the time with the special responsibility of training new Airman assigned to the unit. It was my job to train them in the details of their job duties on every shift. I was a base level NCO at this point or what they used to call a, "Buck Sergeant."

My co-workers offered to make me "supervisor" for the whole unit, if I'd just re-enlist. I could've negotiated for about anything and got it.

It was a tempting offer and, though I liked the job and was good at it, it wasn't what I wanted to spend my life doing. I don't regret getting out.

However, if I HAD to travel back in time and make a different choice, I'd go back to that moment when my co-workers were begging me to re-enlist and I would have accepted. I would have re-enlisted. I would have made the Air Force a 20 year career.

That fork in the road would have changed the outcome of both our lives. Hubby and I wouldn't own the house and garden we currently do. We probably wouldn't even be living in Florida.

Hubby and I would've still married, since we'd already met and he would've still put in for re-assignment to Eglin AFB here in Florida, because it was a base of preference request he's earned. Those things would've still happened.

But, after that, the line of reality shifts.
We would never have bought this house. Instead, we would've continued living in base housing until Hubby got those orders to Turkey in 1989, but instead of him going alone, I would've been assigned to go to Turkey with him.

Hubby would've chosen to test for promotion to Master Sergeant instead of retiring and, if he'd made it, he would've had to stay in Turkey 2 more years. That would've only been acceptable if we'd been assigned to the same location in Turkey; but if there hadn't been an opening for a medic in Ankara, I might've been assigned to one of the other two bases in Turkey. In that case, Hubby would've opted to retire so we could be together and he would've followed me around for 1 or 2 subsequent assignments for another 5 years.

Then, in 1995, with my 20 years complete, I would've retired, hopefully as a Master Sergeant. We would've bought a house and lived in the vicinity of whatever base we were last assigned.

Perhaps I might've gotten a degree in nursing along the way or even after and continued working in the medical career field to support us. Hubby would've ended up working, doing something random or going to school. 

As far as our interest in leading young Air Force singles in Bible Study, that would've still happened. It was an interest we both shared even before we were married. It just would've worked out differently. We would not have necessarily ended up being invited to be on Staff with the Navigators as we currently are.

Luckily, that isn't the line of reality I chose. I like this one.

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So, how about you? What career choice would you have done differently?

Thanks for visiting!