Like you, I came in as an SF baby in 2006 at the tender age of 18. I had zero life experience and I felt as if the cadre could only assess my potential to do good work. The lack of experience made me push myself to the front. Luckily my physical efforts made up for my immaturity that would later be flushed out in the Q and on the team.
SF taught me that I was not the best, barely average, and I would have to fight every single day to stay afloat. Many times I was "that guy" who didn't have his stuff together and was the one to blame for failure. I continue to put in extra work just to feel average. That grit has been acquired over the years through hard work. I am still here, I am still learning, and I am still average. Honesty has been my best friend and got me through some tough times when I was to blame.
I showed up to my team and deployed two months later. We did three trips to Afghanistan and I was considered a go to guy by the second trip. After the third one I decided to get out, mostly because I had lost myself somewhere along the way and I needed to see something else. It was a huge mistake, but the lessons from it are profound.
My break in service from SF showed me the most. My encounter with the civilian world was depressing. SF soldiers live on another level of life. You can't replicate it anywhere else in the working world. The lack of brotherhood and lack of purpose left me feeling like I didn't have a reason to wake up in the morning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trapper John
Love Basenshukai's 20 Things 
I came into SF at 19 (SF Baby) an orphan child of living parents. I was literally raised by SF at a very formative stage in my life. I entered in 1969 and left during the rift in '75 when groups were being deactivated and I feared being transferred to a Regular Army unit. After long talks with a few mentors and some restless nights, I sadly decided to go back to school. The fire and anger in my belly subsided after about 10 years and I came up for air 2 marriages later with a PhD and a burgeoning career as a medical research scientist and entrepreneur. The rest as they say is history.
But at the core of my being is SF and the lessons taught to me by giants among men. Everything I think and do is tied back to that which I learned and experienced in SF. In fact, I just wrote a strategic plan for internal consumption by my company's leadership (who all just coincidentally have a SF connection in their background), well that strategic plan looks and reads like a UW mission statement.
And on the day that I die my last thought will be of my Brothers as I look forward to reuniting with them in Valhalla. I have said before that if I ever get a chance at another life, God, let it be as a Special Forces soldier. |