The left image are my thoughts and feelings about myself.
The center image are facts about the war and my military service.
The right image is what others’ thoughts are about me.
I find it interesting the disconnect between my thoughts about myself and what others’ thoughts are about me. I’ve become aware of this after I started working on healing from issues as a result of multiple deployments.
I really didn’t know what it meant to be a veteran until I started to suffer the consequences of being one. The dictionary describes the word veteran as coming from the Latin word veteranus, which means of long experience. Merriam-Webster describes a veteran as an old soldier of long service or a former member of the armed forces. I am both now!