Have you sacrificed your civilian career for your military career?

I never jelled with the "you have to get a degree" nation, bless you for those that have. I still work in the Defense sector and I'm doing quite well as a Civilian. I understand that you may have meant little "c" civilian. Veterans, Retirees, without question we make things happen.

My civilian career and my military career will mirror quite a bit. An RN on the civilian side and an RN in the military both perform patient care in some type of setting. I enjoy it, but I want to move on to Nursing Instruction. I want to be a teacher, teaching nursing. Not much of a call for that in the military as the current trend is to send students to civilian colleges/universities for nursing. I like what I am doing, but am looking forward to retirement and getting to CHOOSE what area of nursing I work in (pending finding that job), in the location that I want. Now, with that being said, one of the advantages with the military is that every new job/assignment, you keep your seniority (rank). There is less of that on the civilian side.