About Me

I am keeping personal details others out of my social media and blog posts by personal choice, unless they are something that has been cleared for me to post.  However, that does not apply to me being able to post factual and positive things about me from my post .. accomplishments and moments of joy and so on.  So, I am going to do a quick bio of some of those, because it is my blog and I can.  And, the day that social censorship requires me to not speak about my own life is the day I will be breaking social censorship.  But, I am not g oing to be posting anything recent or current in this blog post.. just foundational past.

In high school, I was a mutt in terms of interests.  I was on the Newspaper staff, yearbook photographer, basketball team, baseball team, Mathematics League, and won awards for fair exhibits, academic competitions in things like math and science and history and more.  I went to and won the Jr level science fair regionally twice in Environmental Science with a fair exhibit on recycled plastic.  I won an essay competition in the area.  And, outside of school I loved to do electronics experiments, build things, and explore the woods.  After high school and during college, I would join a modeling agency for a short time, and worked my way up to be concessionist, usher, usher trainer, and projectionist at AMC.  Oh.. during my high school years, I joined the National Guard and went to Basic Training between Jr and Sr years of high school and career training after high school in Artillery.  Afterwards, I would leave the military for a while and just financially survive.  In my 2nd year of college, I would join a fraturnity and be on the Intra Frat Council, was a leader of a student union board activities committee, and was a youth director at a church.

Then, skip forward a while, I joined the Army active duty for a few years.  During that time, I was elevated to be the 1st Sargent's driver and would win Soldier of the Month for one month and get a couple battalion coins and Army Achievement Medal.

Coming out of the military, My child had severe ADHD that was cuasing problems and social isolation for her, so I homeschooled her for 7 years.  I don't know that I would make the same choice, again, but it gave us a lot of time, together.  That part I wouldn't change.  When my youngest was born, my ex had a post partum psychotic break, and for two years I was pretty much the only parent caring for my baby, while managing household needs and finishing not only my bachelor degree but my Master's degree.. eventually with a short period of my schooling for Elementary Education for a while in between, as well.  I would get hired for the IRS and work in Boston for a while.  After that time, I got my first divorce and came back to Oklahoma, where my family was.  I would work at first at Dillards and manage their furniture department for a few years, before getting hired to work accounting at IBM.  During this time, my ex had another psychotic break tied to her mania, and I would have custody of both of my children for years in Tulsa, and I have so many great memories of my time with them in this place.  I would also run several 5k's, which is something that I believe I want to train to begin doing, again.  I would also write several books under my own name and a female penname that I picked, as I felt that women would not read romance written by a man.  I would also write several inspirational books over the years, as well. 

From there, I would go to Florida, where my child went to be back with her mom, until my child graduated from high school, and came back to Tulsa to be near my family and for work.  I will stop at that point, because it is a good listing of my past without disclosing much detail of anyone else.  I forget sometimes just how many things I have overcome in my past and just how awesome my life has been.  It will continue to be awesome in the days and years to come. 

Basic Training

 I had the thought of doing this post, earlier today, but I forgot for a bit.  So, doing it now.

I was in the National Guard for 8 years and active duty for 2 years.  I definitely have reservations about how our military is being used, but I want to focus on one aspect of the military that most don't spend enough time learning from... Basic Training.

The purpose of basic training is to break you down and build you up with individual confidence.  You enter basic scared and alone.  I remember my moments doing it.  I was gathered with a bunch of others that are also scared and alone.  They joined out of different reasons.  Some joined for scholarship money.  Some joined for family tradition.  Some.. actually.. joined after a life of prison to find a new future for themselves.  However, none were prepared for what lie ahead.

The first two weeks of Basic are called hell weeks.  For weeks you are woke at ungodly hours of the morning by banging trash cans or yelling or more.  The Drill Sargent gets pleasure in catching you off guard and emphsizing your weakness.  They are trained to do it.  You will be forced to spend hours in prone position doing pushups or lifting cans filled with concrete or doing road marches or more.  I remember multiple times taking a shower and feeling half of my muscles spasming in pain and exhaustion, just do have to do more, shortly after.  I honestly wondered if I would die in the process, but I figured that no one would allow them to kill us.

Then, you stop failing as much.  You start doing well at different things.  You do more than you expected.  You last longer in PT than you thought you could.  Slowly, you become confident that you CAN not only survive but do well at being a soldier, and that gives you confidence to do more.

This is another example of the benefit of evil.  No one is trained in basic by being praised and treated well.  They treat you HORRIBLY.  WHY?  It is so that when you are out there in battle with no one to ask for help, YOU can solve your own problems and save others.

People are not trained in wisdom.  They are not made fit by being given a light load.  We have in various ways for CENTURIES or even longer been training people to succeed by first treating them badly to teach them to overcome.  WHY should we expect LIFE to be any different?

You face struggles to learn to overcome and gain confidence.  If you have not learned the lesson, it will feel worse for you, longer.  Then, you can graduate from your struggle and actually be useful for success in your own life and the life of others.