Part 1.

Thinking back at the times that I was feeling at my highest, i was also pretty dang low. I lived a very chaotic and random on the spur life. I was in the middle of… multiple potential relationships and was dancing every weekend, as well as some of the days through the week. If my bro’s did not want to come with me I went all alone. I’ve always enjoyed the experience of going somewhere new solo. I’ve been to underground raves, a lot of metal shows, many many dance clubs of all varieties… My favorite was Sharky’s or their neighbor club Secrets.

There were times that I wanted to go home so bad to marquette, mi but i was in myrtle beach… I had a 3 day weekend so I immediately started driving up with only stopping for gasoline. A couple of times I did this, i would not want to be seen and would only share with very few people that I was in the area. Sometimes I would just go sleep in the woods, or on the beach along Lake Superior.

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One thing that I was doing for sure, was going down-town. Washington Street. Remies has always been my first spot that I head to. I usually ended up there towards the end of the night if the dance clubs “Skeet Skeet” we will call it… and the irish pub across the street were closed.

No-matter what I also had to go to my favorite brewery. Black Rocks. I was there within the first day or two of them opening since I lived 1 block over. I purchased a hand crafted mug there that they store in-house. This was a very limited time period, and it was difficult to find mugs. I picked mine out of a cluster of just a couple of mugs. Best $40 I’ve ever spent. I would tend to see people there, I especially enjoyed when I would bump into the german mother of one of my friends.

I would show up randomly at my parents door sometimes and surprise them. One time I found my ex-wife with the dude she cheated on me with at a local brewery. I never knew what was going down randomly in marquette, mi. It was always a new, refreshing, experience when I took those trips. I took one of my army buddies up with me once and he did not like the experience… I was all about minimalist camping, and he preferred a bed. [He was not an Infantryman]

I’ve been told by a couple of my friends in my army friend group that they had to take turns partying with me cause I was so constant. I was usually somewhere else, If I was at home, I was playing my favorite PC game Insurgency.

Thinking farther back, even when I was in high school I would be either doing something somewhere, or I was at home. Taking care of my siblings, cooking them brownies or ramen noodles 80% of the time. My Dad was deployed to Iraq and my mother was very on edge and sometimes not there when I would return from school. I don’t mean writing this as a stab at anyone, it’s just how it was.

I was a wrestler, they called me gumby because I was so flexible. I wasn’t the best wrestler, but I made sure that I was not pinned. I found how to channel my motivation through wrestling. This became beneficial in moments where during extreme physical exhaustion I was able to push on and accomplish my goal. One being my first 20 mile trail run. I had never competed in a long distance run before and out of the entire battalion and more that wanted to join. I finished 7th place. [DOCUMENT FROM REVIEW]

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One time I decided to follow the advice of my bro “Delta” and get a pedicure. A couple of weeks later I did a 20 mile ruckmarch. At mile 11 I felt a lot of pain.. Even after consistantly rotating socks (combo of thin and wool socks) and powdering my feet, by mile 20 I had ripped the skin off the ball of my feet off. [HERE IS THE PHOTO] I returned after the ruckmarch and spoke to the medic about my feet. I went by the CP and one of the Squad Leaders asked “why did you keep going?” I replied, “Because I don’t stop.”

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I would pre-game every 20 miler (run or ruck) with a 12 pack of Guiness stout and a large bowl of some type of pasta. Before the run I would drink half of my large Bolt House chocolate drink that had 65g of Protein and a high amount of potassium per bottle. When I returned I would finish my drink, and the unit FRG would have pasta and fruit for us. We would stop by the CP and grab a beer from our command as well. The medic would pass out a pill form muscle relaxer to us and we would clean our weapons until the most of us passed out then we would be eventually released to go home after we turned in all of our “clean” equipment.

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