Officer Darren Wilson gets married to fellow Ferguson cop

[JonLP24]

69. Our childhoods were very similar

A lot of the same shows we grew up watching were the same, the biggest exception is Nickelodeon in the late 90's.

My ex-wife already had 4 kids by the time I meant her which wasn't an issue for me (that might scare off a lot of other 18-year-olds). I didn't get too involved in parenting them or trying to mold them. I only "corrected" them when they started misbehaving, acting up, or doing something dangerous. However, I was able to do a better(I couldn't think of a neutral word to describe what I mean) job at helping her daughter with her school work (I can come up with creative ways to explain myself in ways that make sense, I can find common ground with people off the deep right wing deep in though most of the time those people don't know why they're Republican--they just buy into the common misinformation about Democrats--they really need to get better in the marketing department). My ex-wife would just lose patience and was limited in to what she can do to help without giving away the answer. One way, I noticed in elementary schools. A lot of question & answer worksheets had patterns to them(especially in math), once you figured out the pattern--the answers were given away. She questioned my methods in teaching her the pattern but it was one way I made it through elementary school--I also was the "Outstanding Math Student" for the 5th grade.

One thing I wasn't prepared for is the importance of being able to provide everything for those kids, she had more work experience so she was able to get a job the next day after being fired(she could leave it off her resume) while later I missed work because emotionally, the problems in the relationship effected my desire to go to work anyways and block out the problems and do my job. So when I missed one too many, it was difficult to find a job (but a hell of a lot easier than it is these days). Took me awhile, what limited experience I had was hard to explain on the "reason for leaving" and I've always been horrible at interviews. Finally got into landscaping & construction but the jobs were always temporary.

One day at a bus stop I was on my way to apply to a job when an Army recruiter came up to me and asked "What job do you know trains for over 100 career fields for free?" and I was hooked. You have to understand something, joining the military was the last thing I ever thought I'd do and was 100% against the Iraq war before the Iraq war. I used to get into arguments on Yahoo CSCO board & college basketball message boards (March Madness 2003 took place during the beginning of the war) with people slamming for being a cowardly liberal and all sorts of things, including "support our troops" ad nauseam. The reason why I did was because of my commitment and my strong desire to have a decent paying job so she isn't completely underwater all-the-time when it comes to the expenses kids & monthly rent comes with.

When drill sergeant in basic training asked each of us why we joined my honest answer would have been "so my girlfriend wouldn't leave me" so I went with school or something.

I slipped into a depression after the war & started becoming self-destructive. I don't want to get into it but we became married not long after I returned and I consider myself the world's greatest boyfriend but I wasn't a very good husband. I wasn't an abuser or cheater, just depressed.

There were certainly differences that affected the relationship, clearly there was but while there are parts of me that will never take things seriously, I was more serious & mature than most others my age--she used to say that I was like a grandpa in that I wasn't living a wild & crazy 18-year-old life (she went to clubs regularily while I didn't but that had more to do with the drinking ages).

I get what you're saying but personalities matter and to those where they matter less, age is more important but when it is the most important--the ages don't. A personality from a SO that fits you is rare so while similar life experiences better the odds. I was an agnostic/atheist while she was a Christian (not a churchgoer) which was an initial problem for her, it was something that was never an issue afterwards. People find differences like that impossible for a relationship but it was much less an issue than age. It helps that I don't have an expectation for people to think like me.

The miles part was in the sexual context. I would repeat what he said but it had something to do with sexual organs younger compared to older and mileage was used as an analogy. My point of mentioning that was to explain I was more mature that others my age because the thought of choosing partners based on "mileage" never crossed my mind.