I’m fast approaching the completion of my second week here a FT Dix, this has been an eye opening experience and in many ways an educational one as well. I am slowly beginning to come to understand the concept that as apparently unconstricting and open this camp appears, in reality it is not, it is still prison. Gone are the freedoms of when to wake up, when to eat, when to feel like doing something or not, it is all dictated by the rules, wake up for breakfast, 6 Am, get there by 6:20 or you don’t get food. Lunch is 11Am, be there by 11:30 or you’re shut out, dinner 4, 30 minutes and gone. Of course there is no such thing as choice of menu, it is what it is, eat or don’t eat, that’s the choice you have. The head counts, 4 pm, 9:30Pm, Midnight, 3AM and 5Am, the 4 and 9:30 are standing in front of your bunk, on weekends a 10Am standing count is added as well, you have to be there, no choice about that. Then there is your job, I haven’t been assigned one yet, actually I am looking forward to that, it will be good to have that as a distraction and a means to occupy time productively.
Conversely, after becoming accustomed to the rule set there is the abundant time we have in-between, time we can choose what to do and that is the incongruity of it all, free time versus scheduled time. There is a lot more free than scheduled. I’m also beginning to realize that being here takes away a lot of the everyday stress we put ourselves under, here we don’t have to worry about cell phone calls, computers, idpads, social media, bills, business, jobs, all of the outside pressures are pretty much gone, this is a freedom and a gift. Now I have to make the best of this gift and do some really productive work over the next six months so I will be able to look back and say this has been a truly good experience.
