22 May 2 Important life lessons I just happened to learn in the Army

Important life lessons come to us in a variety of ways. Mine happened when I was in the Army. Yup, a looooooooong time ago, I did this thing where I joined the Canadian Army Reserves.

Yup, that Army.

Camouflage uniform, paint on my face, holding a rifle kind of Army. And I can hear the collective…

WHY?!?!?!

Long story but ever since I was little, I remember my Dad being in the Army. He seemed so brave doing his Army thing and I guess I wanted to be brave too. Anyways, just after my 17th birthday, I enlisted. Then came…

BASIC TRAINING!

Soooooo there’s lots of yelling but definitely NO singing like in the movie Stripes!

It was hard. Like really hard. There were times when I wanted to cry but I never did. There’s no crying in the Army.

My 2 years in the Army taught me 2 important life lessons that have shaped who I am today.

Important Life Lesson #1-

I learned to DIG DEEP.

It’s in you, you just have to look for it. And it’ll be hard and it might take longer than you think. But if you don’t try, you’ll never know you had it in you. And you’ll never know what amazing things you could’ve done.

Important Life Lesson #2-

I learned to NEVER let anyone tell me I can’t do something. This one’s probably the biggest lesson I learned. Nothing diminishes your fire, energy and drive like being told you won’t succeed. So DON’T listen to them. You absolutely CAN do it, if you WANT it. Prove the doubters wrong.

Sargeant Vye said I’d never pass Basic Training. I didn’t have “what it takes” to succeed.

Well, I proved him wrong. I passed.

So I want to say thank you for that Sargeant Vye. You taught me important lessons that have lasted me a lifetime.

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Here are some more things I learned about life.