Well, of course the military was the launching pad for everything that my life has experienced – that I have experienced in my life. That would include: educational opportunities, meeting people, meeting friends, going places, seeing the world from my own viewpoint, understanding what's happening in our world, understanding the people who I work with now in the civilian sector and in the public school.
You develop leadership skills. You learn to accept responsibility. You learn to lead by example.
I learned of what my 30 years had taught me as a person. And it's my 3 D's: determination, dedication and discipline. The military taught me very much about my determination, about looking at future and goals and deciding what you want to do and laying out a plan to do that, and being dedicated to work very hard at achieving that particular goal. And of course, to get there takes the discipline. And, I learned an awful lot about discipline, about attention to detail and working very closely with people that, as I look back at my 30 years of my military service, that determination dedication and discipline pretty much sums it up.
I am so glad that I have that experience in my life. I think it's made me a more well-rounded person. For me the military was never the focus of my life but it was a very important, tangential aspect and I think that without it I would not be where I am now. Once you've challenged yourself farther than you ever think you could, you can kind of reach inside yourself for those resources anytime you need them.
