I am sorry you are where you are now. I can offer my ESH. I was unemployable for my first 5 years of sobriety and I did join the Military. Since I had children to feed I could not afford to be picky. It turned out to be the second best mistake I ever made. I have gotten to do more for the poor and suffering than the Peace Corp volunteers do. I abandoned myself to the God of my understanding and I haven't been let down. You said a few things I found troubling:
Also found out my sponsor voted for McCain, and I can't stand Republicans. I feel like I can't even talk to her, because she doesn't know where I'm coming from. I stayed sober.
I have sponsored people from all walks of life, a doctor, a right wing conservative Army Officer, A Homosexual, and a slew of others who come from all walks of life. I mention these three because we used to attend meetings together and were all friends. Our differences only served to make our friendship more interesting. We opened each others minds on so many things. We found out the conservative wasn't so closed minded as the media tends to present them as, the homosexual was a fairly stable guy and the Doctor wasn't a condescending A-hole. What an eye opener for me! I had pre-conceived notions about the three of them. Had I not allowed myself to put aside my own prejudices ( You said you hate Republicans, if one was pulling you out of a burning building would you refuse?) I learned quite a bit about preople.
In October, I got rejected from the grad school program I wanted to get into. I stayed sober.
No one promised an easy ride. The fact that you have the opportunity to go to Grad school is a miracle for a drunk