Entry 1

My psychiatrist has recommended that I keep a journal. My father wants it somewhere he can access it, so here it is. This is the journal of Altsoba Shepherd.

Entry 1
I've been told that I have anger issues. The psychiatrist said so on my visit this morning, but it's not the first time that I've heard it. In military school I broke a lot of noses and put a lot of lesser cadets in the hospital. Some times I got in trouble. Some times I was applauded. I'm not sure that I preferred one over the other. Military school ought to work the same way the military does. If you're strong and smart, you survive to fight on. Teaching cadets any less than that is doing them and the soldiers they fight beside a disservice. I know that better than anyone, I am a child of war.

My parents were immigrants in the early days of the camps. We had to fight just to stay alive. Those experiences are the basis for everything I have become from there one out. I am the one who survived. I am always the one who survives. For it to happen this many times is not luck. I am talented at survival. I have little patience for those who believe they are owed something from the world. I believe I am owed nothing and have received just that.

Am I angry? Why wouldn't I be? Anger, suspicion, strength-- these are the reasons I'm still alive.