I left home when I was 16. Not because I had a plan — but because staying felt harder than leaving.

Before steady work and a place to lay my head at night, I wandered. The streets. The desert. Under bridges. Sometimes on a dirty mattress in the open. A lot of the time, though, I had good friends and parents who quietly helped more than they probably realized.

This episode isn’t about trauma or blame. It’s about survival — the habits it builds, the strengths it creates, and the blind spots it leaves behind.

The military didn’t save me. It gave me structure. My wife gave me a reason to want something better.

A conversation about growing up fast, learning to survive, and realizing that survival isn’t the same thing as direction.

There’s a side of military and first responder life that rarely gets talked about — not the heavy stuff, and not the highlight reels — but the everyday culture that shapes how people think, joke, communicate, and connect.

In this episode of Average Joe: Let’s Talk About It, we talk about the things that make sense only if you’ve served or lived close to someone who has: the humor, the unspoken rules, the long shifts, the strange sense of calm in chaos, and the bonds that form without much explanation.

This isn’t a self-help episode or a deep dive into trauma. It’s a lighter conversation about identity, perspective, and why people who serve often see the world a little differently — sometimes for the better, sometimes in ways they don’t notice until later.

A bridge episode about culture, camaraderie, and the shared experiences that connect generations of service.

There’s an unspoken expectation that by a certain point in life, you’re supposed to feel settled — confident in your choices, clear about your direction, and sure you’re doing things “right.”

Most of us don’t.

In this episode of Average Joe: Let’s Talk About It, we talk about where that pressure actually comes from, why feeling “behind” is more common than we admit, and how comparison quietly convinces us we’re failing when we’re not.

This isn’t about lowering the bar or giving up. It’s about reframing the idea that not having everything figured out means something is wrong with you. Sometimes it just means you’re still becoming — and moving at a pace that actually fits your life.

A conversation about pressure, perspective, and replacing the need for certainty with something more useful: direction.