Weird moment between the carnage.

They thought I was a nice sheltered boy.

No, I was just finding out who I was becoming. A weird blend of geek and grunt.

I watched the adults around me and picked which traits I aspired to and to make my own mistakes.

I looked middle school my first tour (125lbs, SXS, and by the end of the tour, I fit XSXS), and they had fun leveraging that appearance for anything dog & pony morale related, as I had this weird magnetism of grannies feeling bad for me.