Defining Moments

OMG! Vic’s world is so bright and shiny!!! Well then… let me, Dave, perchance make it even more magical and choked with fairy dust!

As we begin, let me tell you of a talk I had with Mr. Victor Marshall Jr. The other night my man Vic and I were engaged in a riveting convo, in which we began talking about what we always love to talk about: LIFE, LOVE, AND FRIENDS! Our group of friends, the “Peeps,” as I like to call this motley group of hooligans is ridiculously close as anybody who knows anything about us knows. Thus, we have been known to share just about anything and everything about our daily lives. Anyways, back to the conversation… it ebbed and flowed through different topics, including love, levels of maturity, and even our childhoods. Eventually, however, we landed on the subject of those moments in our lives which change or alter our point of view and mature us in certain ways; our “defining moments” if you will.

Now, defining moments come in all shapes and sizes and you are likely to have hundreds and hundreds in your life. They can involve anything from love, to careers, to even maturity. Personally, I have had a couple different ones in the past few years. First, I decided I wanted to join the Air Force. Second, I completed the equivalent of basic training for Air Force officers, called Field Training. Now, yes, these are obvious defining moments, but there are others that make more subtle changes that we may not even realize until later.

That being said, I am taken back to last summer. It was a time of general loneliness for me. You see, my brother had just left home, moving across country to start his life as a marine officer and my closest friend was in Officer Candidate School for the Marine Corps. <- yeah, a lot of military influence around here. Simply stated, I had a lot of time to myself to think and reflect , which isn’t always good! Dare I say, I became a little depressed. All I wanted was to go active duty Air Force and leave San Diego…. There was nothing for me here anymore (I thought). I had other good friends to hang out with, but it didn’t change my feelings… I wanted to leave. But alas, I had to finish college….” One more year… one more year,” I thought to myself. It seemed like everyone around me was off doing something important and I was stuck here doing nothing. 

Before long though, I began to mature. Those of you who know me probably want to refute this, but IT HAPPENED!!! OKAY!!! IT HAPPENED! What had happened though? Well, in my restless state, I had decided that, as long as I was here, I might as well try and better myself. Did I feel I was adequate enough to lead Airmen?… um no. So I set about trying to make myself…more adequate?...sure. I started reading more- about leadership and different things. I began getting into better shape. I picked up the guitar for kicks. I even tried to practice being a quieter individual; thinking more about the things I say. Slowly, I began becoming like a well-rounded adult human being and stuff! I know this might sound ridiculous; I mean, I wasn’t an extremely immature person to start with, but I had come to the realization that I had a little bit of growing up to do, especially before I enter that "real world."

This was a defining moment in my life, though I didn’t realize it at the time. Sometimes we don’t recognize it right away, but God places situations in our lives that ready us for that big, ugly, real world out there. So….recognize and take advantage of those situations yo! Its kinda cool when you figure out what just happened! Thanks for reading! Stay classy ya'll!

Peace, Love, and...

Dave

PS- Thanks to Vic for letting me post on his blog! Love ya bud!