Journal Eight By Gabbie Schilling

Part One: The most important thing that I gathered from the short film was that PTSD is extremely real. It may not effect every person who has ever experiences trauma, and the symptoms may not all be the same. I observed that although he had a normal life returning from war in Iraq, he wasn't the same person. He tried to make his life work, but something was missing. The feeling of being apart of a team. He needed to feel like he was apart of something more. He brought up suicide a few times and how he thought it might be his way out. He talked about suicide as if it were the best option for him, while also saying that he would try anything. He said that the thought of suicide made him happy in a way because it was a way out of feeling the pain. As a Psychology major I plan to use my education to help people with mental disorders. Many men in my family are veterans, so I plan to focus my career on helping not only veterans, but any and all active or retired war soldiers. I feel that it is important to help those who offered their lives to save others. I plan to someday be able to travel and help as many people as I can.
Part Two: I found it odd that even though these people were homeless and without food often, that they stuck together. They don't just think about themselves. Hobos leave clean pots and pans behind for others to use, they leave markings to signal whether the location is good or not. These people really treat each other as one big family, that is just amazing to me because they have so little yet give so much to one another. If I had nothing left I would try to find a community where I was welcome, and try to find a good support group that would help me get back on my feet. I would try to find a place like this because I would want to be able to return to a life where I had a job, and a house to live in.