Navy Stories #13

This cyberstalking makes almost everyday is an interesting day, but not in a way where I’d like for it to continue. So the Navy moved me from one base to another. On move day, I get a couple of text messages from my sister and it’s obvious to me that she’s in communication with the people around me, which is nothing new. Why on this day? Well, I wrote that I graduated from boot camp with my head held high, and now that I’m leaving one assignment to go to another, these people were going to make sure that I was going to walk away with shame. So there were a lot of petty things that went on, but I was on a high from being on travel mode, so it was kind of annoying, but didn’t really affect me, and what’s more, it’s not like I’ve done anything morally wrong .

So me and a bunch of other sailor board a bus to go to the airport. The bus passes in front of the hospital I went to during boot camp, which I talked about in an earlier post, and as the bus passes the hospital, I see that the flag is at half staff. Why was the hospital flag at half staff on that day? I’m not sure, I can’t find a reason with brief internet research, but I see that a flag at half staff is seen as a symbol of respect, mourning, distress, or in some cases, a salute. If that flag was flown at half staff to salute me… wow, that’s cool.

So while on the bus on the way to the airport, I hear people talking around me and they are saying stuff to annoy me, but I ignore it, until I realize that they are actively cyberstalking me. I sent a text message to my sister, and I can tell that these people around me can see what I’m writing via the cyberstalking capabilities. So I open up my notes app and start talking to them. Here’s what I wrote:

So we finally get to the airport and check in our bags. At this point, yeah, the annoyance is starting to affect my mood as my tolerance is being reached, and although I’m being respectful, I’m starting to be more vocal. I go through security, and the security lady asks me to remove my mask so she could see my face, and she’s kind of taken aback because my ID shows me with a mustache and beard, which I no longer have. So I jokingly say “huge difference” and she laughs and says “yeah” and I try to smile, but I’m kind of annoyed and don’t have the energy to smile, so I think I might have come off as a jerk, but I think she understood the situation. So I couldn’t wait to get to the terminal and sit and rest and then get food later.

So I find the terminal for my flight, and sit and rest. By this time, it seems like the whole airport knows I’m there. As I start to get comfortable, these older Latino guys behind me start verbally harassing me. Like they knew who I was, but beyond that, they had been in communication with someone close to me very recently. I usually respect my elders, but these guys were being super disrespectful, so I called them idiots, but in Spanish. Then they said something that kind of got under my skin, which made me sure that these guys had spoke with someone from my family. So I decide to take a picture of them as they were getting up to leave, and I was going to post the picture I took of them, but I decided not to because this situation is a bit different than the last time I posted a picture of someone… you see! Damn, I’m such a good person.

So after resting for a couple of minutes, I decided to go get some food. I got some pizza, then went back to the terminal to eat. Then some time later, these Latino assholes return and start verbally harassing me again. I said aloud, “aw, not these guys again.” This verbal harassment was getting on my nerves, and sitting there respectfully keeping to myself wasn’t going to make the situation any better, so I started to verbally defend myself. When I get angry, it’s easy for me to be a bit vulgar, which doesn’t last long, because I realized awhile ago that I need to not being vulgar and be creative. Luckily, I wasn’t vulgar this time around. So I repeatedly started calling these guys child abusers, which definitely work. It seemed as though, with every time I called them child abusers, their vicious verbal harassment would dampen. Now, I know I’m not a child, but I did read once that child abuse can continue into adulthood and can even lead to death. Which makes sense. I absolutely have no idea who these guys were, I know nothing about them. Yet, they know who I am, they know about me, and have been in communication with an abusive harasser. So it’s like they walked up to someone who has their hands tied, me, and start taking cheap shots, which is like child abuse. People don’t abuse children because it’s a challenge; people abuse children because they are easy targets. And they understand this without even having to think much about it enough to put it into context, which is why, they increasingly got more and more quiet and less aggressive. This verbal defense tactic of mine isn’t new. It’s something I thought of sometime ago, but was very effective at that moment, and tends to be affective when someone wants to take a cheap shot at me. For example, later that day, the flight attendants weren’t being the nicest people to me. They even whispered “off” to me when I was sitting quietly with my head resting on my knees. So I let their harassment build, because they obviously want a reaction from me, and the reaction that they got is not what they wanted. I started calling them child abusers, and that alone change the course of their behavior.

So even though I am proud of myself for being able to verbally defend myself, this behavior is not healthy, and it is child abuse, even though I’m not a child.