Another segment involved in the development of me has been commitment. I am not saying I am one or the other, chicken or pig, but sometimes I am one, other times I am the other, and on occasion, both. Huh? There are two kinds of commitment as I see them. Let us use breakfast as the goal. It takes commitment to accomplish a goal. In the case of breakfast there is a commitment from the chicken, the egg. So the chicken is somewhat committed to the breakfast. Then there is the bacon or sausage, the pig. I would have to say the pig was fully committed to breakfast.
So, as I became me I had to make commitments. When it comes to my family, my marriage, my desire to protect them both, I am a pig. I am a pig when it comes to protecting the freedom of this country. In regards to the Marine Corps I will always be a pig with a touch of chicken. It was not in the cards for me to make it a career, but even now when it comes to the organization, its history, my service to it, my belief in everything it stands for, I’m a huge pig.
The level of commitment will and has dictated the success and attainment of the goals I have set. Some have been reached by being the chicken and others have been reached by being the pig or both. But in either case I was required to make a commitment, work hard, devote time and in some cases money. Like everything in life there have been rewards, losses, successes and failures.
Through all of this I was then either the chicken or the pig. I committed to remain a free man, stand by my word, and represent my family name with pride and honor. I committed to do whatever it would take to provide for them regardless of what sacrifices I had to make. There was a time I had three jobs. We had a time when I had no job and moved in with my in-laws. Rest assured I was a total pig in the commitment to get employed and get us back out on our own. My commitment to graduate Marine Corps Boot Camp was repeated when I went through the Academy, 15 years older and no where near was I physically as prepared like when I was coming out of high school. The commitment of the chicken wouldn’t cut it. The commitment to work in a career that required the carrying of a sidearm made me a pig (no pun intended) to do and commit to whatever it would take to go home at the end of shift. I succeeded even though there were those that wanted to prevent that. I must confess that the tour of duty in Vietnam had a lot to do with that commitment to survive. That I still carry. Oink Oink.
What makes me, what makes all of us? Commitment is one of those things that I relate to when I have to define who I am. Whether I have been the chicken or the pig I have attained the goals, most of the time. In some cases the results defined regret and regrets that I didn’t commit defined other results, more or Les.
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