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Has it really been 5 year...
At that time, I had recently quit school at ITT Tech. I was studing electronics, and it took me a few years to realize that that's not what I wanted to do with my life. In search of some direction, I had decided to join the US Air Force. During the physical, there was one question that determined my fate for the next four years. One question that I knew the answer to. One question that needed to be answered a dishonestly. One question: Do you have asthma? Yes or No.
I had spoken to the recruiter about what I wanted out of the Air Force. We chatted about possible career paths as a civilian once I server my term. Score huge points on the enterance exam. Everything was open to me. We also spoke about my medical history. As a kid, I had asthma, like a lot of other kids these days. Although it didn't bother me at the time I was finishing high school, since I was in track and field and wrestling, Sgt. Black recommended that I answered "No" on that one question. It would remove a lot of red tape in the future.
I answered yes instead.
And so begins the red tape, and man, how long it is. I went to a repratory specialist down the street. His job was to condust a test to determine whether I had asthma, and if so, to what degree.
The morning I was scheduled to take the test, we turned on the tv, and saw what was left of the Twin Towers.
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To this day, I'm still not sure what that day ment to me, if anything at all. I had rescheduled the respratory test for the following week, and failed. No entry into any branch of the Armed Forces, do not pass "Go", do not collect $200. The only effect it had in my little geeky life, was that Red Alert 2, a computer game, would be delayed to change it's box art, since it depicted the World Trade Center on fire. All tv shows and movies seemed zealous or fearful to show the Twin Towers in any way, and were working to have them removed digitally. The Spiderman 2 movie trailer, wear the helicopter of some bank robbers is caught in a giant spider web between the two towers, was never seen again.
And I still don't know why I said yes...
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"I don't know that I ever wanted greatness, on its own. It seems rather like wanting to be an engineer, rather than wanting to design something - or wanting to be a writer, rather than wanting to write. It should be a by-product, not a thing in itself. Otherwise, it's just an ego trip."
Roger Zelazny
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