The first Monday after leaving the Marine Corps, Joey Dean instinctively reached for his phone.

“For years, I had to check in to my leaders to say I was alive,” he said. “And then suddenly, I didn’t have to do that anymore.”

The silence felt unfamiliar.

For many young military veterans, the first days out of uniform are not a return to civilian life.

But an entry into a version of adulthood they have never known.

“When people say ‘adapting back to civilian society,’ it’s not adapting back,” said Gabriela Rodriguez, president of ASU’s Women’s Veterans Club, who served seven and a half years in the Marine Corps before separating in 2024.

“If you joined fresh out of high school, you’ve never known adulthood outside of the military. It’s learning a whole new culture of life.”

The transition is both emotional and practical. Dean said he misses the constant camaraderie of military life, where service members work, live and decompress together.

“It’s a family away from family,” he said. “You work together you come home together. That part’s hard to replace.”

For women military veterans, transition can also come with unexpected assumptions.

“Every time I mention that I’m a veteran, it catches people off guard,” said Marissa Hunley, a Navy veteran who served nine years as a meteorologist. “People assume women had office jobs. In reality, women do badass things in the military — it just gets overlooked.”

Small adjustments can also be surprising. Hunley said navigating dental insurance and everyday logistics felt overwhelming at times.

But for Dean, workplace culture was the hardest shift.

“In the military, it’s go, go, go,” he said. “In the civilian world, it’s more relaxed. I had to learn how to slow down.”

At Arizona State University, support systems like the Pat Tillman Veterans Center help ease that shift.

According to ASU, the university serves more than 18,000 on-campus and online military-affiliated students, veterans and military dependents. Veterans interviewed described the center as welcoming and community-driven.

“It’s honestly like family again,” Hunley said.

Leaving the military means losing more than a uniform. It means redefining identity, rebuilding structure and discovering purpose beyond rank.

“Success looks different now,” Dean said. “It’s making sure my kids and wife are happy and healthy.”

For many young veterans, the transition is not a step backward into civilian life, it’s the beginning of defining adulthood on their own terms.