🤠 How To Train an Old War Dog

Day 51:  Good Boy!

by Edward Smith

25 Aug 2020

Sending a Military Dog Back to School

If you read my last article entitled 🤠  How Paying The Price Teaches You Value, you would have read how I was able to get myself back into college through hard work and sacrifice.  

I did all of this while I was trying to juggle my military career and full time job.  It wasn't easy, but it was totally worth the price.   In this article I talk about what I did after I got out of the service.  Once you get the college bug, it can make you do crazy things.

I Learned a Lot

After I took classes at the local community college, I got a bug for attending college. I began taking the whole thing really seriously, and my first action upon leaving the service was to attend college full time.  My skin was the in the game now, so the whole thing had become very personal.    

I knew that this was my last chance, and that my behaviors would dictate how it went, so I never stopped working hard after that point. The hard work payed off.  I did well in my classes, and doors began to open up for me.  Those doors eventually led to a great job after I got out of college.  

Awesome for me, but that doesn't mean college is for everyone.  

There is No Universal College 

College is not for everyone.   The military is not for everyone either.   Everyone needs a plan, and that plan needs to have a why.  Without a why, things become really hard, and people can get hurt.  

I didn't have a why when I started out, but I tried to move forward without one.   My parents took a chance on me, and it all backfired.   I almost lost everything.  That's a game you don't want to play.

Luckily for me, I met the right people at the right time, and thanks to those two things lining up, my why suddenly became visible and crystal clear.  It changed everything, and my trajectory was put back on target.   

Trying to skip ahead failed.   For me I had to follow a certain set of steps in a specific order, and those steps were unique to my own situation.  

Conclusion

My steps may not work for you.   You may need to discover your own set of steps.  Don't let other people tell you what those steps should look like.  You are not them.  They are not you.   

Take your time, and figure out what works for you.  You might find that you're different from everyone else, and that you need to do things differently.   That's okay.   You're unique, and your story is unique.  Tell your unique story with pride. 

That's what I did.  When I started out, I crashed and burned.   I was trying to live another person's dream, instead of my own dream.  When it all fell apart, I was left to fend for myself. I had nothing to compare myself to.  My friends had already moved on.    

That didn't stop me though.  I worked through everything and by doing things my way, things worked out great.  

I even got a great education out of it, and this education was valuable.   It was personal.  I had to change who I used to be, and become better and put in the hard work.   That was the price.   Not a bad trade off if you ask me.