Member-only story
“I Have No Idea What I’m Feeling Right Now”
The Emotions of U.S. Veterans Today
“I have no idea what I’m feeling right now,” a friend texted to me. We both served in the Marine Corps and both of us deployed to Afghanistan back in 2015. It’s a common phrase I’m hearing from many of my veteran friends.
I’ve reached out to a lot of people I knew. Even though I haven’t talked to a few of them in years, something like this makes you want to reach out and check in.
Some have answered. Some have not. About half want to talk about what’s going on, attempting to process what they’re feeling. A couple have answered but deliberately stay away from talk around current events.
But the ones that don’t answer are the hardest. I hope they’re just busy. Not thinking other things. Things I’ve lost some other friends to. Friends we all lost to themselves.
I told my husband yesterday that I didn’t know what to DO will all of this emotion. What do you do with something excruciatingly painful that you can’t quite understand?
It’s grief. We’re all feeling grief.
A grief for the friends and family who were, a grief for the Afghanis currently suffering and for the American families still mourning losses, and it’s a grief for what might happen to the people who…
