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As a teenager, Ryan Blum dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Army. He was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, where he served as a squad leader with the Army's 10th Mountain Division.

Now, he's a student at the American University in Paris. He joined MPR News' Kerri Miller to talk about his transition from the military back into civilian life. His op-ed, 

"The Hard Path from Afghanistan to the Classroom,"

 was recently published in The New York Times.

"I'd seen death," he said. "I just had nothing in common with my fellow students — or so I thought in the beginning."

MPR News Staff

Author

Ryan Blum dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Army. Now, he's a student at American University in Paris. He joined MPR News' Kerri Miller to talk about the transition.

Ryan Blum joins us to talk about the challenges of re-integrating to civilian life, and the trials of pursuing an education after deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan.

From the military to the classroom

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