I want to thank you gentlemen for always being able to direct my mindset in different directions and take me places I thought I couldn’t go. I’ll try to keep it sweet, short and simple.
I am a 34 year old father of two boys and husband to a great woman. I served in the Marine Corps about 30 lbs ago. I deployed to Iraq in the summer of 2007 and when I came back home from that deployment I was determined to become an LAPD officer, a dream that I had planned since I was a freshmen in high school. During that time I was also engaged to a girl so, according to me life would be good. I would soon leave the beloved Corps, get married and become a great officer. However, God sometimes changes our plans without us knowing.
During the LAPD exams, everything was going well, I was passing the interviews and running smoking 6 minute miles in volunteer training. The hard part came when I took my hearing test, as I couldn’t pass the simple stupid hearing test. The doctors gave me three opportunities to pass until they finally said it was enough.
When I was disqualified, a high wired Dr. sat me down and broke it down to me by saying, “you just can’t seem to hear at the level that is needed, and unfortunately this will disqualify you and you will never become a police officer.” This became a huge detour I had not planned for.
This may not sound like a big deal to some but for a guy who grew up in North Long Beach, this plan was what success looked liked and I had no other plans in life.
About a week later I went to the VA and they confirmed that my hearing went bad during my deployment. Shortly after that news, the girl I was supposed to marry dumped me.
At that time I lived on my own and drowned my sorrows in wine bottles and any alcohol I could get on a daily basis.
I began drinking on a heavily to forget about reality and I was miserable.
One day I looked at myself in the mirror and told myself that my Marine brothers would be upset at me for acting in this manner, after all I was a motivating Devil Dog at one point in life.
I told myself I couldn’t live like this and enrolled in school on a pursuit to get my BA.
Later on I married and became an instant father. I currently work in management and use my job to mentor people about leadership and life by using the never quit mindset. I found out that I can still be a useful leader without a badge.
I feel I really couldn’t be where I am without your mentorship as I wake up with the TNQ attitude on a daily basis. God bless you guys, keep doing what you’re doing.