Strength Through Determination

My appreciation for strength began early in life when I met the world on my own while serving in the military. After being drafted in 1968 and choosing to enlist into the Marine Corps, I was shipped away, taking me from the family nest’s security. We take for granted so much when not faced with surviving dire challenges to exist. Having a roof over my head, food to eat, a warm bed in the winter, and air-conditioning in the summer was a luxury that I took for granted. However, there was little attention regarding how all of this was possible as I went on with the business of attending school, playing sports, working, and reconnecting with close friends. Yes, that was my life, and now I’ve been met with the same challenges but just on another level. Had I not been taught how to ‘navigate’ through life that brought me surviving techniques, I am sure that my life would have been more difficult.

Your learning environment should begin at home, where your role models are your parents. It all started with them as I saw firsthand how they elected to acquire money safely and manage that money. Hard work, sacrifice, and the discipline of living a fulfilled life were nothing I took for granted, and I learned early what all of this meant.

As I have entered those ‘twilight years,’ I am thankful for where I am and what I have managed to accomplish. This full-scale accomplishment didn’t come easy because, along the way, there were many emotional challenges that I needed to overcome. As I met each problem, I needed further help because I forgot what I was taught as I lost sight of those ‘life principles’ required to survive. My meeting survival conditions made me more reliable and more aware of what was to come, and if I was to meet those challenges, remembering those lessons was now essential.

Even to this day, my emotional state is still frayed and fragile. However, my ability to remain grounded in my beliefs and find a change in those beliefs made me a better person. You see, it’s the level of your maturity that allows you to tackle those challenges head-on and rise from that crowded corridor victorious. I know pain and suffering! I know loss! I know what it means to sacrifice! Yet, when you want to say no to some things, it can quickly become a ‘yes.’ It’s the circumstances that arise that force us to take another look at any given situation to change our minds and do the improbable.

In particular, my young adult life, the years that followed my military service were too taxing and frightening. I made so many mistakes, but none that crippled me. My setbacks were stumbling blocks where I did fall, but I could ‘get up.’ I never dug a hole so deep that I couldn’t get out, and with that effort, I found a way to keep moving forward. Much like the ‘Lion’ with its fearlessness and an unselfish sense of surviving, it makes this beast a ‘King’ of his dominion.