Characters

  • Joe Rock
  • Juni Okuda

Locations

  • Joe & Juni's apartment, Boise, Idaho

This happens a lot, at least in my experience. Ordinary life, little things, jobs, schools, relationships, other people– just the daily, ordinary things that add pressure or stress to our lives crop up constantly. And sometimes you feel like confidently diving in and handling everything because, hey, you’ve faced down some of the most stressful things humanity can throw at you, right?

But then you feel like, hey, you’ve already put up with some of the most stressful things humanity has to throw at you, so why do you have to waste time with this crap now? You go back and forth across the spectrum, and when little stressors get to you and wear at you, you feel petty complaining about them because of all the supposed resilience you’ve developed.

If there was one thing that I felt in abundance upon returning, it was primarily exhaustion. You’re tired of being “on” constantly, even in your sleep you’re wired to wake quickly and know where all your stuff is if you need it “now, now NOW”. Your mind works constantly because you know the difference between ordinary helicopter flights over your sleeping area at night, and sudden “unusual” helicopter activity. The same goes for the howl of passing diesel engines or the squeal of tracks, or the dull thud of artillery going out somewhere. This stuff is the soundtrack of your life and you quickly get used to the patterns of “routine activity noises” and “something’s boiled over somewhere” noises.

And there’s just that daily walking around, trying to do ordinary things like go to chow or use the internet or go to the toilet, and even if you do everything right some random event could still bring catastrophic change to your life.

So when you come home, daily stress looks small and insignificant in comparison, but it gets to you because you’re still human, it’s still stress… Maybe find a way to be glad that you are now free to be bothered by little things once again.

Characters

  • Joe Rock
  • Juni Okuda

Locations

  • Joe & Juni's apartment, Boise, Idaho

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