Looking Back, What Were The Big
Choices That Impacted Your Life?
Steve Jobs said you can only connect
the dots in your life when you look back.
I can see there were several choices that I made at certain times in my
life that were major crossroads. The
first one was during the early part of my junior year in high school. I applied to be a foreign exchange
student. Now I was from a small town in
Indiana. The idea that I would be
selected to be a student in a foreign country was almost laughable to me. I did not believe I had any chance to be
selected, however I did fill out the
paperwork. There were a couple of
options to choose in the paperwork. One
was if you wanted to apply for a summer program which was about six weeks in
length or a full year program, I chose
the full year one. It also asked if you
had a preference for Northern hemisphere or Southern hemisphere. I can’t say why but I did select Southern
hemisphere. I mailed off the package in
late October. I had no expectations to
hear back from the organization. On a
Saturday in mid-December I was at work at a gas station. I got a call from my mom and she was crying
and said I was leaving in four weeks to spend a year in Australia. So, to say that my world would change is a
big understatement. In January I packed
my bags and left for a year in Australia.
The relationships I made during that time are still very strong over 40
years later.
The next big choice came late in my senior
year of college. I was graduating in
about six weeks. I always had a great
interest in the military. I was walking
from the library and saw a sign that said a Navy recruiter was in the building
across the street. I walked over there,
met the recruiter and signed up to enter the aviation branch of the US Navy. If I had gone out a different door of the
library I would not have seen the sign for the Navy recruiter. I still may have entered the military at a
later date, but it may have been with a different branch, either Army or Air
Force. Eight weeks after meeting the
recruiter and two weeks after I graduated I left my parents home to begin
officer candidate school in Pensacola Florida.
I ended up flying A-6 Intruders off of multiple aircraft carriers. I absolutely loved it, I had more fun then
you could possibly imagine.
Three years after I entered the Navy
came my next big crossroad. I got
married to the sister of one of my officer candidate school classmates, her
name was Cheryl. The ironic thing is I
had been telling my family since a young age that I was never going to get
married. Even several months before I
got engaged I thought that marriage was something that I wasn’t going to do. But
I did and it changed my life.
Another strong belief I held was I was never
going have children. I told Cheryl this
very early on when we just met. When we got married she understood this was
what I wanted. She really wanted to have
children and hoped that my position would change. Well, my position did not change but five
years into our marriage Cheryl got pregnant. I now have an amazing daughter
named Ariel. I could not be a prouder
parent. She has and still does have the
most positive impact on my life.
It’s funny that two of the strongest
held beliefs that I had proved to not be as strong as I thought. Both made me a better person.
The last major choice I will discuss
here was the decision to leave the Navy after 15 years of service. It was a difficult decision, however a lot of
factors played into it. As I said, I loved
my Navy life. However, the flying part
of Navy life was at an end. So, I chose
to walk away and start a career in the civilian world. Now I say civilian world, however I have been
a contractor at different companies over the last 20+ years supporting all
branches of the US military. Though I
don’t wear a uniform anymore, I am still associated with the military.
Now there were many other choices that took my life in other directions, these wore the few that had the greatest impact.
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