tl;dr
I didn't join out of altruism. I didn't sign up to feel patriotic or fulfill my sense of obligation or duty to my country. I did it so I would have something to write about, writing being my aspiration at the time. What better to experience than being an astronaut. Had I stayed the course (and succeeded), I'd be one now, training for an ISS mission or some future mission to Mars and, with a little more luck, be a veteran of space.
Around the end of flight school, it was clear that the complete dedication and self discipline I would need to have a chance at astronaut wasn't a part of my repertoire. I was too hooked on books, crossword puzzles, and other of life's shiny baubles. Being in the Navy was fun and satisfying, though. I liked being part of the machine, being at the tip of the sword, and I loved flying. and seeing the world on my bike when we'd hit some exotic port. But I also loved my family, and had I wanted to stay in another 10 years to retire, I would have had to miss even more of my kids' life,. Oh, and keeping the marriage together was hard enough without the 6-month separations. If I'd tried to stay competitive in as a Navy pilot, I would have had to continue to take more arduous assignments away from home, and with the Clinton military roll-backs, a generous early-out bonus helped make the decision. Plus, by that time, I'd already decided what I wanted to work on for the next phase of life.
It was Reagan's Secretary of Education who wrote convincingly that education mattered, and I agreed. And with all the alarmist rhetoric about the critical state of education in America, I thought I could bring my organizational management and leadership skills to contribute. I let the Navy help pay for my masters in Ed. Admin and jumped ship to civilian life. The original plan was to spend 5 years in the corporate world, learn what they knew about educating people, build up a little cash, and then become an educator. It started out great working with CSC (now merged with HP's Enterprise division to become DXC Technology) for a couple years until 9/11 caused a couple rounds of layoffs in which my division was eventually cut. I could have stayed in the industry but due to a nice series of unlikely events, I used that opportunity to take the plunge into education.
