I am so glad I have a year until I'm done

[amberlyrose]

I am so sick of being a reservist in the military. Sick of it. They make it sound so easy breezy when you're in college and poor. The first part is going to sound bratty, but it's just another straw on the camel's back.

I bought tickets to a sold out beer festival for this weekend back in August, assuming our drill was going to be the first weekend of the month (as it always is except for holidays and Superbowl sunday interference).
We didn't have a published schedule for those dates and I went off history. So, of course a couple weeks ago, they told us it was going to be this weekend. I switched tickets with someone so I could go to the afternoon session and still go to drill without incident. Of course, I get a call a few minutes ago saying I'm on night shift.

At first, they refused to work with me (it's not like me being there at a certain time is critical. I won't be doing anything important). They moved it down two hours so I only miss 2 hours of the fest. My supervisor said "Well, you have to be flexible, you knew this was coming up." Yes, well after the fact. It's not like we're going to war or having an inspection. I literally sit on my ass for the majority of the shift.

It's like they forget the time I moved my LSAT date up (even though I chose the date in advance of the schedule) and almost moved my wedding date to go to Iraq. I've lost so much opportunity at work to move up because they simply can't rely on me if I'm deployed on a whim (I don't blame them, really). I can't quit my current job to get the internship I was offered because I'd have to be free on weekends for events.. ugh.

I feel like I'm just held hostage with this thing. I can't move up, down, or sideways in my career until I'm done with the military.