Thoughts

2020 “Be on the Road”

wildboom

If you don’t know me that well then you might not know that I like cheesy quotes. As we have started this new year and this new decade there is one in particular that has been on my mind. It goes like this:

“If you don’t know where you are going any road will get you there.”

I like that saying so much because I often feel like I have no idea where I’m going in life and there might not be a direction that speaks to me. Sometimes there is, but most often there isn’t and that’s okay. It’s not even that I need a destination and even if you do have one that’s not really the point. The point is to be on the road.

Another cliche saying talks about life as a journey and not a destination. It’s also been said as “The road is better than the inn.” They mean the same thing. In both, you can’t enjoy the journey unless you’re on the road. So even if you have no direction. You have to get on the road and you have to move forward. It doesn’t matter what road. It doesn’t matter if you take two steps forward and one step back. It doesn’t matter if you take one step a month. You just have to make sure you are moving forward.

There were times in my life where I thought I had it all figured out, but life is full of surprises. At the end of my undergrad at CMU, it was down to the last two for a graduate assistantship that would have paid for my entire master’s degree. I thought this was the plan. I was confident the assistantship was mine, but they gave it to the other person. The destination that I had been moving towards quickly became far less concrete. I had to think about whether it was something I really wanted to do. If it was free sure I’d do it, but when I was forced to slow down and think about it I definitely wasn’t confident enough to pay for it out of my own pocket.

Instead, I decided I would take the time to travel. It was the perfect time in my life where I didn’t have anything tying me down. I had a new direction. Part of that direction was pursuing Muay Thai fighting in Thailand. I always loved sports and this was my opportunity to pursue a sport seriously and without the restraints of a full-time job and the more expensive cost of living, I would have had in America. Then I got knocked out in a training round and bounced my head off the concrete suffering a concussion. That derailed my plans and made me really consider the dangers of the sport I was pursuing. It didn’t stop me from stepping into the ring and having one fight, but it probably stopped me from devoting a lot of time and energy to a sport with pretty severe long term consequences. Again the direction changed. This time I focused solely on traveling. I ended up having an amazing trip that spanned 7 months, 34 countries, and 4 continents. I saw so much. I learned so much and that made me really appreciative of what we have in America.

Those experiences abroad made me acutely aware of all the blessings we have and how I had taken many of them for granted. The power of an American passport, the power of being a native English speaker, the power of the American dollar and the ability to make a decent wage, and so many other things were on full display when I was traveling. The United States has given me so many opportunities and as a result, I wanted to do my part and serve. As soon as I got back I joined the Army National Guard. I made so many great friends through training and the Army has opened up so many opportunities for me.

If my original plan of grad school had worked out as I had planned I would have missed out on so many memories and experiences I can’t imagine living without. Instead, I stayed on the road and kept moving forward even if it was a different road than I started on. Now I’m one class away from my master’s degree except this time the Army is paying for it.

Now, as I move forward now into a new decade I have some plans, but in a lot of ways, I still don’t feel like I know where I’m going. But as I learned from the previous decade plans are prone to failure and destinations are always changing, but one thing is for sure. If you stay on the road and keep moving forward you will be surprised where the road takes you.

Big Personal Impacts in the Last Decade

  1. Started high school
  2. Started first real job at Dairy Queen
  3. Started wrestling
  4. Graduated high school
  5. Started college at Central Michigan University
  6. Started working in the college athletic department
  7. First solo trip to Nicaragua at age 19
  8. Bought my first house in the hood of Saginaw to rent out
  9. Graduated from CMU
  10. Bought a one-way plane ticket to Vietnam
  11. Trained Muay Thai and had a semi-pro fight
  12. Traveled the Transiberian Railroad
  13. Saw the Great Wall, Lake Baikal, Auschwitz, Berlin Wall, Eifell Tower, Mona Lisa, the Rock of Gibraltar, and other cool stuff
  14. Slept in the Sahara desert
  15. Sailed a crossed the Atlantic ocean from the coast of Africa to the Carribean (Canary islands to Antigua)
  16. Bought a house to live in, with friends, in Saginaw
  17. Joined the Army National Guard and got commissioned as an officer
  18. Army training and the friends I made
  19. Started training jiu jitsu
  20. Started my Master’s degree

Those are just some of the things that I accomplished in the last decade. I’m excited to see where the road takes me in the 2020s. God bless!

2020 “Be on the Road”

Summer’s Gone

wildboom

I have not done as good of a job at updating the blog as I would have liked, but I have an excuse and it’s school. I’m taking 18 graduate-level credits this semester and it is pretty draining. I am working towards my Master of Science in Administration with a leadership concentration. I only have so much mental bandwidth and unfortunately is goes to school instead of fun, creative thoughts that I might post here.

I have had some creative thoughts and ideas that I wanted to touch on here, but I really haven’t had time to really expand on them. If I do have some free time I try to spend it with family or friends and that’s what I’ve been doing.

All things considered, I’ve had a good summer! I had two weeks of annual training and then two and a half weeks of a warfighter exercise so I did lose about a month of summer to Army training. But I learned so much through those experiences and I made some good relationships. Aside from Army training and classes I made a couple of camping trips with friends and family and made it to a couple of weddings. Pretty recently I went tailgating in Wisconsin for their game against Central Michigan University and then this past weekend (10/12/2019) I went to Central Michigan’s homecoming and had a lot of fun with old college friends. Below is a mash-up of my summer photo highlights:

  • Saginaw Abandoned Train Station
  • Family Camping Trip in Ohio
  • Empire Bluff Trail
  • Camping near Sleeping Bear Dunes
  • Army Training
  • Not a great fisherman
  • Wedding
  • Party on McCarty gang
  • Abandoned house in Saginaw
  • Tailgating in Wisconsin
  • CMU Homecoming
  • Family Camping
  • Brothers

School has been going well and I actually had a really interesting emotional intelligence class during the summer. That class was actually valuable and I think I learned some stuff. For the most part, though I’ve been jumping through the hoops and not absorbing too much. I am a firm believer in Pareto’s principle which says that 80% of the result comes from 20% of the effort. An 80% is passing so if I can get away with 20% effort in the classes you better believe I’ll do it. Most of the classes are a waste of time anyway. If I want to be a better leader I would be reading biographies of great leaders and I would spend more mental bandwidth trying to lead as an officer in the Army National Guard. Instead, that mental bandwidth is going to classwork. As much as I complain about it I am excited that I’ve been given the opportunity to get a free master’s degree. Maybe someday it will get me where I want to go.

In lieu of my lack of creative thoughts, here is an assignment I did for a diversity class. I interviewed my Brazilian coworker Denis:

Diversity Interview

For the personal interview paper assignment, I chose to interview my coworker – Denis. Denis works as a welder at the guitar shop where I work. Denis is originally from Brazil where he met an American girl studying abroad. They fell in love and at first, she intended to stay in Brazil. However, Denis’s family encouraged him to follow her back to America where they believed there would be more opportunities for him. Denis doesn’t get to see his family much unless he travels to see them in Brazil. However, at the time of this interview, his parents had just left after visiting and staying with him for a month on their first trip to visit him in the United States.


Q: Growing up what was your perception of the work culture in Brazil? Do you think it was accurate?
A: “My perception of work culture in Brazil was that in order to do well, in whatever job it was, you needed to work hard. Growing up I watched my dad work hard and get ahead based on his work ethic. When I started working, I found that was true – hard workers were rewarded.”

Q: When you came to America what was your perception of the work culture? How has it changed since you’ve been here?
A: “When I came to America, I thought that you needed an education to; 1. Get a job, and 2. succeed. Now I know there are many jobs you can get without having an education but I think in order to really be successful in America, unless you get lucky, an education is necessary.”

Q: What are the biggest differences in work culture between America and Brazil and how do they affect you?
A: “I think the work culture in America is more easy going. People can have flexible schedules or time off depending on their situation. The pressure to work at a fast pace is less in America. Also, there’s not such a thing as a “sick day” in Brazil, unless you have a doctor’s note.”

Q: How did you feel when you worked with people from different cultures?
A: “I think it depends on the person. I’ve worked with Americans who are hard to get along with and I’ve worked with Americans who have become great friends. It really depends on the person, not their culture, I guess.”

Q: What were the benefits that you got from working with people from different cultures?
A: “Learning new working styles and understanding how someone else might approach a project differently from me.”

Q: What were the challenges that you faced with working with people from different cultures?
A: “Adapting to a different work philosophy was hard at first. In the beginning, language was the biggest challenge, obviously. Sometimes people don’t have the patience.”

Q: Have you suffered any discrimination or stereotyping based on your ethnicity?
A: “Yes, like I said before, some people are hard to get along with. If you’re having a bad day it’s easy to take it out on someone different from you. Or someone new to the company. Or someone you don’t respect for whatever reason. But that’s not only an American thing.”
Q: Has a shift in the US political climate ever caused any issues for you or does it cause any anxiety or concern?
A: “Not really. I believe if you came into this country the right way, you shouldn’t feel any anxiety or concern. I’m here legally, paying taxes like any American or other legal immigrant. I don’t use food stamps or government aid. That gives me peace.”

Q: Are there any obstacles that you have had to overcome? How did you overcome them?
A: “The language barrier took some time and practice. Also getting used to American customs – small things like greetings and goodbyes are different than in Brazil.”

Q: What was the hardest thing to adapt to when you moved to the United States?
A: “The climate was hard to adapt to because I came from a tropical country. Driving in the snow was tough at first. Being away from family and friends was hard and it never gets easier.”

Denis has faced discrimination as have many foreigners in America. However, Denis is able to take it in stride and stay focused on working hard and making the most of his opportunities here. He is fortunate to have the support of his American wife not only emotionally, but with a marriage visa. That makes his path to employment much easier than many less fortunate immigrants. Apart from dealing with discrimination and cold Michigan winters adapting to the language and the work culture has been difficult. However, Denis finds being away from friends and family the hardest, which is a good reminder that no matter where you are from there is always common ground and that our core values might actually be more similar than they are different.

…hope you enjoyed my homework more than I did! Hopefully, I can get back in the groove and think more creatively and post more often!

-Sam

Summer’s Gone

My Army Experience (So Far…)

wildboom
Preparing for the gas chamber…

I’m back! I’m at the tail end of a very enjoyable 2 week leave from basic training in Fort Jackson, SC. I guess Drill Sergeants want to spend time with their families for the holidays too, so we were allowed to book a flight home form Dec 19th – Jan 3rd.

Basic training, honestly, had been pretty fun up until this point. I was fortunate that because of our starting date we crammed all our graduation requirements before leave. So after 8 weeks of training I’ve undergone the soldier ceremony and have “earned” the right to wear my rank and my beret. The week before leave had the Forge. The Forge was the final field exercise of basic training. We spent 4 days outside in the cold with some of the lows reaching into the 20s at night. We started with a long ruck march of a little over 10 miles. 10 miles isn’t as fun with a 65lb pack. However, I really enjoyed rucking because of the challenge, but mostly because I was warm when I was moving! Sleep was hard to come by as we spent a lot of our time rucking at night. In the cold conditions you could see the moisture on your boots ice over. That was a little depressing, but when it came time to actually get a little sleep I was really impressed by the warmth of our sleeping system. Without a good sleeping system I don’t know if I could have done it! The night before the soldier ceremony we had to sit outside in the cold for hours before it started. No sleep and it may have been the coldest I’ve ever been in my life.

I’ve been asked a lot what a standard day looks like for me in basic training. We start the day typically around 5am with a wake up call. 5:30am formed up outside gives 30 minutes for morning hygiene and making your bed. Then we stand outside in the cold (sensing a theme?) until a Drill Sergeant comes out and runs us through physical training. Days typically alternate between running days and “strong” days which is essentially pushups, situps and other related exercises. After our workout we usually head to the dining facility for breakfast and then back to the bays for a shower depending on time. The rest of the morning until lunch is dependant on where we are in our training cycle. For most of basic we would spend this time getting to the range, either by walking or bus, and then shooting until lunch. Lunch is in the dining facility if we are on the battalion footprint otherwise we eat MREs (meals ready to eat). MREs aren’t terrible, especially if you are good at trading for things you want. I always end up with extra food since I know who likes what and more importantly who doesn’t like what. Then after lunch more shooting and then transport back to the battalion. Then another workout before or after dinner depending on timing. Then after dinner or after the workout we typically spend some time cleaning the classrooms, our bays, or whatever they can find for us to clean. Then if we didn’t mess up to badly we might get 45 minutes of personal time to read and write letters. Then lights out is at 9pm. And then it happens all over again…

I’ve made a lot of friends and have enjoyed learning and getting better at a lot of the different types of training. So for me I’ve really enjoyed it and always found a way to have a little fun each day. There’s always something that a Drill Sergeant yells at another trainee that will make you laugh.

I came home to lots of needed time with family and friends. I also came home to a puppy German shepherd living at my house. So much happiness!

Next, I’ll be headed to Fort Benning, Georgia for 12 weeks of Officer Candidate School. Who knows if I’ll be able to update you from there, but just know I’ll be continuing adventuring and learning!

My Army Experience (So Far…)