Asking for Help (Veteran Voices)
Asking for Help (Veteran Voices)
Transcript
So my experience with asking for help in the military, I can think of like two instances and both were very extreme. And I think they reflect the culture of asking for help while in the military.
First instance, I was in South Korea and I was doing a job that a gunnery sergeant would be doing whereas I was a lance corporal. I was 20 years old. I had a breakdown because there was just too much work and I couldn't handle it. I could have easily just asked for help but I didn't even realize that that was an option. I didn't even realize that asking for help would actually be helpful. Helpful to everybody.
Secondly, when I was in corporal's course, we were running on the beach and we're carrying ammo cans and I was struggling to carry these ammo cans because they were each 30 pounds and I slowed the whole platoon down but there were actually other things that other marines were carrying, they were far lighter and we could have switched and we could have like finished first but I didn't ask because I just thought that it's better to just power through and feel pain as opposed to actually like strategizing and thinking like; I can carry other things and somebody's totally fine with carrying this ammo can. In the military, it's often taboo to ask for help, to say, "I don't understand "something and I need you to show me how "so that I can do it" but in class, that's encouraged.
In fact, the professor will most likely enjoy that and remember you and then give you a better grade maybe, in the end because you care about this because no one is... While you might be expected to understand how to diss and ass a weapon in the military just because of what you did, in boot camp or some sort of training school no one expects you to show up to a calculus class and expect to know everything about integration so asking questions about how to do things in class is encouraged and if you don't, you will likely not be able to understand things. - In the military, you get injured, you get put on profile, hopefully and you heal up so you can get back at the mission. The military physical wellness is tremendously important. It's put at the highest priority because you can't accomplish your mission if you're broken, alright. Now, when you get out, there's all these challenges and struggles and you're not working physically the way you were in the military.
There's an alliance on making sure that your, you know, your back is working well, right but there is another component working very hard the same way your body was in the military, it's your mind now so physical health is to the military what mental health is to college and it may be very difficult, especially with all the challenges and stresses of vets getting out that it can put a tremendous amount of stress and burden on an individual.
And so it's important to identify and be okay with the fact that things won't be going right all the time and to identify when they're not so that you can reach out for help. There's no way I would have been able to make this far and a lot of people I know be able to make this far if they didn't reach out for help and they didn't make sure, they didn't reach out to school resources, to the VA to make sure that they got the help they needed, you know, whether that means, you know, seeing a counselor or I don't know, seeing your doctor or any amount of that, it's all about identifying when things aren't going right, when you're not feeling right, when you're not acting right and then addressing those issues head on rather than letting them linger and turn into something bigger than it would be, than it needed to be, that could have been prevented. - I think the number one place to know on campus especially for student veterans, for anybody really, is to know where the mental health resources are located. It is extremely important for you, your career to keep your mental health in check.
So know where that is and know yourself, listen to yourself, know when it is time to get a checkup.
First instance, I was in South Korea and I was doing a job that a gunnery sergeant would be doing whereas I was a lance corporal. I was 20 years old. I had a breakdown because there was just too much work and I couldn't handle it. I could have easily just asked for help but I didn't even realize that that was an option. I didn't even realize that asking for help would actually be helpful. Helpful to everybody.
Secondly, when I was in corporal's course, we were running on the beach and we're carrying ammo cans and I was struggling to carry these ammo cans because they were each 30 pounds and I slowed the whole platoon down but there were actually other things that other marines were carrying, they were far lighter and we could have switched and we could have like finished first but I didn't ask because I just thought that it's better to just power through and feel pain as opposed to actually like strategizing and thinking like; I can carry other things and somebody's totally fine with carrying this ammo can. In the military, it's often taboo to ask for help, to say, "I don't understand "something and I need you to show me how "so that I can do it" but in class, that's encouraged.
In fact, the professor will most likely enjoy that and remember you and then give you a better grade maybe, in the end because you care about this because no one is... While you might be expected to understand how to diss and ass a weapon in the military just because of what you did, in boot camp or some sort of training school no one expects you to show up to a calculus class and expect to know everything about integration so asking questions about how to do things in class is encouraged and if you don't, you will likely not be able to understand things. - In the military, you get injured, you get put on profile, hopefully and you heal up so you can get back at the mission. The military physical wellness is tremendously important. It's put at the highest priority because you can't accomplish your mission if you're broken, alright. Now, when you get out, there's all these challenges and struggles and you're not working physically the way you were in the military.
There's an alliance on making sure that your, you know, your back is working well, right but there is another component working very hard the same way your body was in the military, it's your mind now so physical health is to the military what mental health is to college and it may be very difficult, especially with all the challenges and stresses of vets getting out that it can put a tremendous amount of stress and burden on an individual.
And so it's important to identify and be okay with the fact that things won't be going right all the time and to identify when they're not so that you can reach out for help. There's no way I would have been able to make this far and a lot of people I know be able to make this far if they didn't reach out for help and they didn't make sure, they didn't reach out to school resources, to the VA to make sure that they got the help they needed, you know, whether that means, you know, seeing a counselor or I don't know, seeing your doctor or any amount of that, it's all about identifying when things aren't going right, when you're not feeling right, when you're not acting right and then addressing those issues head on rather than letting them linger and turn into something bigger than it would be, than it needed to be, that could have been prevented. - I think the number one place to know on campus especially for student veterans, for anybody really, is to know where the mental health resources are located. It is extremely important for you, your career to keep your mental health in check.
So know where that is and know yourself, listen to yourself, know when it is time to get a checkup.