Message From Ripple.

GlazedTheory · #1 5.3.2007, 12:12 pm

So I made a decision to leave for the navy after the summer is over..

You guys have done so much for me.. This whole experience has changed me for the better.. But I need to do this for me. It just feels right.

I wont be throwing anymore partys until the summer. I plan on throwing a massive renegade party. Gonna put my heart into it folks. I wanna show you how much I love all of you.

Party Name:

Gift Of Bliss.

weirdandspecial · #2 5.3.2007, 12:30 pm

that sucks your leaving but if it feels right to you, then go with it. Its goin to suck, but i cant wait to go to Gift of Bliss!! I also cant wait for what you will have instore for us in the summer, its goin to be fun! i know your goin to throw one hell of a renegade for all of us and cant wait to see it in full action!! Hope everything works out for the best for you Alex!

star kitty · #3 5.3.2007, 12:59 pm

aww im going to miss you!
but if it feels right, then it feels right.
me n you better party it up before you leave though!
free hugs, rave, kandi making, all of the above.
its gunna be funnn!
whaddya say?

GlazedTheory · #4 5.3.2007, 1:00 pm

i'm hella down

AlakazaM · #5 5.3.2007, 9:14 pm

I hope it's before I leave usa in June.

Z0B0T · #6 5.3.2007, 10:28 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlazedTheory

So I made a decision to leave for the navy after the summer is over..

You guys have done so much for me.. This whole experience has changed me for the better.. But I need to do this for me. It just feels right.

I wont be throwing anymore partys until the summer. I plan on throwing a massive renegade party. Gonna put my heart into it folks. I wanna show you how much I love all of you.

Party Name:

Gift Of Bliss.

What? ripple....no, i mean if it feels right go for it, but like we're gonna miss u soooo much!

but your going away party is gonna be ravetastic! we're gonna party sooo hard for u!

p.s.-i'm not even sure if i believe u that ur leaving

Lunar Siren. · #7 5.3.2007, 10:57 pm

Awwwww

We'll miss you! ^_^

I wish we could have hung out more. D:

Best in luck though!

-Lunar Siren.

nEil rEnE · #8 5.3.2007, 11:21 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlazedTheory

So I made a decision to leave for the navy after the summer is over..

You guys have done so much for me.. This whole experience has changed me for the better.. But I need to do this for me. It just feels right.

I wont be throwing anymore partys until the summer. I plan on throwing a massive renegade party. Gonna put my heart into it folks. I wanna show you how much I love all of you.

Party Name:

Gift Of Bliss.

You are seriously the most random person I've ever known.
Well have fun, just don't die!

buttons · #9 5.3.2007, 11:32 pm

wtf is a massive renegade alex? you worry me.

Idi0tb0x · #10 6.3.2007, 1:22 pm

So, after thinking about whether or not to say this, I decided that it is important to mention.

I respect the fact that you have decided that you want to join the Navy. I think the Armed Forces are an honorable career if that's what you're after, and ARMED FORCES CAREER. Now, I'd like to tell you about Chris, AKA Dj Right-On, UK.

Chris was a raver who signed up for the Navy. His ASFAB (sp?) test scores were stupendous so they told him that he could basically choose his career in the service. Being a smart boy he decided on computers, cause people don't shoot at you when you're a thousand miles away running a computer. Great. So they train him in computers. He learns quickly and they promote him to a special security clearance. He excels at his training and his work. Meanwhile, he is feeling a little out of place with the rest of the people he is in the service with. Not his type of people on so many levels. But, he is in the greatest shape of his life, which he attributes to the great exercise and the hormones in his food. So it's not seeming too bad that he signed up for a seven year stretch...after all, he's learning stuff that's gonna make him a 100,000 a year in the civilian world when he gets out.

Fast forward 7 years...the last time I saw Chris, was 1999. Chris is now married to an alcoholic woman, daughter of a superior of his, and she has a 7 year old daughter. Chris is now unemployed as apparently the computer stuff he learned in the military was TOO specialized. They don't use cryptography computers in the real world so Chris is without a job. Chris, feeling desperate, trapped in another country with a wife and daughter and no cash flow, decides that the best thing that he can do is to sign on for another contract with the Navy. Chris is 28 and has spent a 1/4 of his life being owned by the Navy. Not just literally, but his choices in the world have become so limited that the Navy is all he has.

Let's look at another friend, Kevin. Kevin was 19 when he joined the service, Army to be specific. Kevin joined the Army because he just didn't know what else to do with himself. A mediocre student, Kevin did'nt think that he'd really be able to get into any colleges, much less afford them. So the Army sounded like a good idea, I mean, money for college is pretty tempting. So Kevin enlists, if nothing else he'll get like 20,000 when he gets out to start his new life with. Good deal.

Fast forward. Kevin finally gets home from Iraq, after three years on the lines he is glad to be home. But Kevin is a bit jaded now. He bought a truck with 10,000 of his cash from the Army, drove to Huntington Beach and rented an apartment with high school buddy. Kevin is doing ok except for the fact that he watched his friend get blown up and got spattered with his blood, he still has nightmares about that. Oh, and he has to walk with a cane due to the fact that he has to have three lumbar vertebrae fused due to a back injury that the Army failed to acknowledge for a year and got so bad that he couldn't stand up. But the VA is slacking on Kevin's surgery, not uncommon, so instead he eats pills to make it possible to stand up. I think Kevin is addicted to the pills now. Kevin also can't work at any job that requires him to stand up for long or be very active...which, given that he went to a vocational high school and has no college experience, are about the only jobs he's suited for. So Kevin is also unemployed.

Why am I writing all this? I just would hate for you to not have the contrasts. The Navy, Army, Air Force, Marines sell you a pretty good deal but the reality often does not match the promises.

As I said before, I really respect anyone who joins the military, it is not an easy job. However, most of the people that I know who have joined the military got a raw deal and now despise it. There are, IMHO, right and wrong reasons to join the military, and I won't judge your reasons. I just hope that you are choosing this option knowing full well what you are getting into. The Navy doesn't want Ripple, there is no PLUR in the Navy, it wants Seaman (insert your last name here)...a rank and file bit of man power contracted to do their bidding. It is not all opportunities, Glory, and Honor.

I only say all of this because I care and because I know you to be a little impulsive at times. So...Just think about what you are doing really well before you sign anything.

No matter what your choice, good luck and I support you.