seems like just yesterday. we were the same.

todayy in psych we talked about whether or not when veterans from the iraq war come back, they should get disability benefits for the rest of their life. it got pretty heated between kelsey, jaclyn, jason and me. i really enjoy debating, but when people are so closed to other people opinions, like a couple were, its really hard to be able to talk about something. those two were very steadfast in believing that because you make the decision to go into the military, that you should not expect any money in return if you get hurt. they were saying that it was your choice to join the military, and fight in the war, and that you understand that by signing onto the military that theres a chance that you could get hurt and/or die.
i didnt get all bent of shape about that. the thing that really bugged me was that one of the girls said that when your back from iraq or wherever it is that you've gone to, if you come back with post traumatic stress disorder, you should suck it up, get over it, and move on with your life. i think that is so incredibly naive. if there's a chemical imbalance going on in your brain, you cant just get over it. depression and ptsd are both diseases, ones that mean something funky is going on in your head, something that you cannot control. so to just get over it is impossible. you cant just chemicals appear or disappear from the inner workings of your brain.
some people have really hard lives, maybe they grew up with only one or even no parental units in their life, guiding them through things, or they had a really hard time in school, either with a learning problem, or the circumstances were not great for learning. any of those things can attribute to a horrible childhood/teenage hood, and can make it so its hard to graduate from high school and go onto other things like college or even a job. someone might want to pursue a higher education in something like plane mechanics or medicine, and both of those things are hard to pursue either because of money or ability to find some place that will teach them what they want to know. so when they see the commercials and the advertisements on tv, magazines, school, and everywhere else known to man saying that the military is a great opportunity for the young person. the military will provide them with training and experience that will help them jump start their life. they also say that if needed, they will pay for your college after you give them a certain amount of time. sounds like a wonderful thing right? yeah it does. it sounds really good for a guy who just gets out a high school and still isn't sure what he wants to do with his life.
the men and women that serve overseas and here in america, are fighting for our country, and our freedom. they are the ones that allow us to keep living in our spoiled existence.
so who are we to tell them, "oh you're depressed because you saw a cat living in the chest cavity of a dead guy? you have ptsd and you jump every time you hear a car door slam, or you duck for cover every time a plane goes over head. oh well sorry.. we're too selfish to give you money to help treat you for your disease you got while fighting for america. i really need to be able to be able to get social security when im 85 and i need to be able to have three cars. just suck it up.. because really its all in your head."
its not their fault that they are depressed and have all these other issues. why is that we pay benefits for people who have lost a leg or an arm. we'll pay, as long as its on the outside, and we can see it. if its in your head, then forget it. that is what's happening, and i don't think that we should allow it to happen. and i do think we should put forth an act to pay benefits, or something of that sort to help these poor veterans live their life.

*phew*

.........

in culinary adam and i worked on eye of the round hunks of meat. it was incredibly disgusting. we each had a 20 lb piece to defatten and cut up. it was so gross, but i got over it and we had a lot of fun cutting it apart. i gave adam the piece that had alot of fat, and took the other one. the only problem was when i opened, there was a ton of blood in the package that spilt all over the board and counter. that was gross gross gross. yuck.
then i cooked up a couple of the steaks with a brown sauce for him and myself. it was really good if i do say so myself. =]

now im off to the grand ol' UPS store.
wahoo.


685