For four-plus years, veterans spent every waking moment surrounded by comrades; eating, sleeping and fighting, we rely on each other because that’s how we survive.

When it comes time to start the next chapter of your career — being a student — often we feel unable to relate to our college peers.

The opening of the Veterans’ Resource Center on campus provides a means to simulate the camaraderie of the military while attending classes. To once again lean on each other as resources and learn from the experiences of other student veterans here at MSU.

While it is unclear what other resources the university will provide, simply having our own space might prove to be enough. If I learned anything while being a Marine, it was how to make do with what you have.

The problem we veterans face is that other students and university officials can’t understand what we are going through simply because they haven’t done it themselves. It is no fault of anyone — we are a prideful group by nature and pointing out weaknesses isn’t one of our strong points.

I couldn’t possibly know what it is like for a student to come here from China because I didn’t come here from China. Likewise, others here at the university cannot know what the transition could be like for us either.

We are not the type of people that need to have our hand held or someone to tell us what to do; believe me, we have had enough of that. We need to know that there are others here at MSU who have gone through what we have. A common space might be all that we need.

I think the common misconception of veterans is that we are ticking time bombs, which couldn’t be further from the truth. We just have a little more baggage than most. Our bad days are darker than others, but most of that can be solved with a phone call to a fellow veteran who is having the same problems you are.

Give us the means to take care of each other, and we’ll do the rest.