“My name is JC Glick, and I retired as a Lieutenant Colonel infantry officer in the United States Army. In total I had eleven deployments, spanning both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. I was part of the initial invasion of Iraq, among many other missions. Every rotation we were doing something that mattered.

After separating there were three transitions I went through; I don’t feel like it was just one. The first was when I stopped deploying to combat. That was the most difficult one for me to adjust to. There were some very low points, and I tried to take my own life four separate times. My second separation, my separation from military service, was actually pretty seamless. I had an offer in hand to be a partner at a large consulting firm. I’d also already written my first book. Finally, this past year, I really went through what I call my third transition of “I’m out but who is my tribe?” I don’t want to say it’s been difficult, but I have grown and felt the shift. What you do when you leave the service is way less important than who you do it with, in my eyes. You need to find your new tribe. You need like-minded people who share your values. I need people around me who are driven, thoughtful, and curious. Not who are the same, but who are similar to me and hold similar ideas.”