My Future

Many of us wander through life asking ourselves one major question.  What is my purpose; why am I here?  But where do we begin looking, how will we know that’s it?  Most of us find our answer through our career or volunteer work and as for knowing, it just feels right and you enjoy doing it.  I believe this is true to my situation as well.

I have two purposes I wish to fulfill before my expiration.  The first of which is to protect the innocent that cannot defend themselves.  To me the death of an innocent person is truly unforgivable and must be prevented at all cost in order to achieve peace.  I’ve already taken the first step in fulfilling this purpose by enlisting into the Marine Corps back in August of 2012.  If everything goes well I should be on the lines a little over a couple years, during the first eighteen months of my military career I will be on security forces guarding high priority naval assets.  Through them I will be given the skills and materials needed to take those people down who take away human rights and refuse to cooperate diplomatically.  Also, it will help me better understand life, other cultures, and forge strong bonds, which will aid me in my second purpose.

To poorly paraphrase what my college composition teacher, Dr. English, said, “in a geological timeline, the human race is but a hair.”  This renewed thoughts about how torn our world truly is and how, more than likely, one day the human race will cease to exist.  I doubt such an event will occur in my lifetime, but action now could prevent such a catastrophe.  I want the human race to survive the test of time and make our mark in the universe.  But, such a feat takes much time, money, and people.

In order to succeed and advance to this future we must unite under a single purpose and flag.  United by a single purpose we can achieve anything.  For instance, during World War II the U.S. was able to put its production into overhaul and gets its people to purchase war bonds so that we could sustain the war, despite the current economic hard times.  Women stepped up to the plate and took on jobs usually held by men and most non military personnel actively took part in volunteer projects for the war.  These events greatly changed America and forged the American people into what we are today.  Imagine if the entire world worked together towards a common goal.  In order to unite the world under one flag we must cast aside our differences and begin to think about the world not just our nation.

A world government should be set in place with a bill of rights and constitution.  This world government would be similar to the U.N. but more action oriented and work more with national integration.  The system of government used will be based off the current American form of democracy with minor tweaking to prevent long political stalemates.  Nations will have similar rights as states in the U.S.  They can make their own laws and raise taxes to maintain their nation, but the world government exercises supreme authority with the rights given to it by the constitution.  Representation would also be the same as the American system.  Each nation would have a lower house based on population and upper house with equal representation with all nations.  However, there’d be laws put into place to keep high populous nations from passing world laws with few other supporting nations that only help their own nation or hurt other world government run nations.  I could go on forever about how I think a world government should be set up and how but to time’s sake I won’t.  What does any of this have to do with my purpose?  Well, one day when I’m old and decrepit I think I might take a run at politics.  I’m not entirely sure if I will because of the high stress, but I have quite a bit of time before any of this crosses my mind again.

It’s important that we all find our purpose in life.  With it we strive through life and work hard towards that goal every day.  The human race will benefit as a whole from most people’s goals.  I look forward to what the future may and hope for the best.

Purpose Pictures

Where Am I Essay

Where Am I

What shapes our identity?  Sure, as we age more we think more freely we develop and make our identity more complex but where we come from has the greatest impact on our identity.  We can figure out our identity by asking ourselves one simple question, “where am I?”  It’s such a little question with a lot of interpretations and answers, some complex and others simple.  Where am I going?  Where am I at?  Where am I from?  These are just some of the interpretations we can take from this question.  So then, where am I?

Where am I from?  I am from the big city and rural Nebraska.  From barn dances, the sand hills, small towns, know all your neighbors, church every Sunday, overalls, chewing tobacco, and middle of nowhere farms.  I am from the McClains with their beef and mashed potatoes for every meal, huge family gatherings, and small town livin’.  I am from the Olsons with their deep European ties, strict no “B.S.” rules, and dedicated hard work.  I’ve been blessed to be apart of these great families and have learned much from them.

Where am I at?  I am sitting in a room at school forcing myself to write this paper.  I’m in Aurora, Nebraska the town and state I’ve practically lived in all my life.  I am in the United States, the best country in the world. I am also at the beginning of my life.  I am near the intersection of my transformation of child into adult and for the past few years I’ve been speeding attempting to reach it sooner and now it’s just around the corner.  I don’t really know what waits for me after that turn, but I have prepared as much as I can for it.

Where am I going?  For the past few years I have begun really doing activities to set me up for success for my future plans.  I’ve been taking school more seriously and taking college courses in case I decide to go to college someday.  I enlisted in the Marine Corps a couple weeks after I turned eighteen, back in August.  I recently discovered that I am going to be apart of the security forces (8152).  More than likely, the first two years of my career I’ll be guarding a high priority area such as nuclear vessel,  area with nuclear weapons, and other places such as Guantanamo Bay.  After those two years I believe I’ll rotate to fleet and join up with an infantry unit.  Since I enlisted I have started working out much more and my goal is to have a perfect Physical Fitness Test score (PFT) by the time I ship to boot camp.  I am studying up on my military knowledge such as rank structures, the general orders of a Marine sentry, leadership traits, leadership principles, and Corps history.  Now I just need to work on my foot work so I don’t look like a “Gomer” during drill.  I  hope by doing this I make myself a better person, Marine, get a leadership role in boot camp-either squad leader or guide-and get promoted to Private First Class (PFC) while in boot camp.  I think I will make a career out of the Corps, at least twenty years so I qualify for retirement benefits.  After the Marines I plan on going into law enforcement.  I think I’ll  become a patrol officer or join S.W.A.T, like my dad, in a city and once I get too old I’ll get a desk job of sorts and continue to work during retirement so I don’t die of boredom.

I have been blessed to have the background I have.  All the positive role models and influences have also helped me greatly in my formation.  Though I strongly believe that we become our own person with or without our background, it certainly gives us certain advantages and disadvantages.

Where am I pictures

Who Am I?

I like to sit back and read an interesting book, going out for a light jog around town, watching “Family Guy,” and sleeping half the day away.  I’ve never really enjoyed watching sports, competitive running, or essay writing.  I highly value discipline, good ethics, hard work, loyalty, and kindness.  For most of my young life I have worked and worked.  I buy all the things I want and need, excluding food and shelter, with my own money.  I am pro-death penalty, pro-choice, a believer in being self sufficient, and an atheist.

My family has played a big part in shaping me into the person I am today.  My father helped me greatly by drastically increasing my discipline, time management, strength, and work ethics.  He was in the Marine Corps for a little over twenty years so that explains pretty well his extremism on these traits.  His theory on being on time is being fifteen minutes early, any later and you’re late.  My dad’s strength amazes me to this day.  He works out often, and even though he’s fifty-five he still made it on the T.R.T (Tactical Response Team), which is like S.W.A.T.  My dad hardly ever misses work but when he does his co workers always joke about how he must be dead because he never misses it or is late.  Because of him and my mom I started working when I was young and quickly realized the value of a dollar.  Due to a mixture of his strictness and him being a police officer is one of the main reasons I haven’t really “acted out” nor done something “stupid” like many of my peers have.  My mother and brother, Matt, helped me “lighten up” by always encouraging me to be more social and friendly.  Because of their persistence I have gained many new friends and have a better impression on others.  Chris, my oldest brother, encouraged me to think more logically and view arguments from both sides.  He also heavily pushed physical fitness.  He was the one that really got me into working out.  When we work out he shows me new exercises to do and explains what muscles they target.  Before he decided to join the Marine Corps he was thinking about being a physical trainer.

Nebraska and Aurora, as much as I hate to admit it, has also has a great influence on me.  With both of my parents and many other Nebraskans being conservatives I too have become quite a conservative.  I enjoy going out into the country and seeing for miles.  Like many other Nebraskans, I like to hunt and cheer on the Huskers.  My brother, Matt, and his friend, Anthony, are some of the most hard core Husker fans I know.  Every so often I go over to their place to watch the game.  Whenever a play or call goes against Nebraska you’d swear there was a fight going on if you were in the other room.  However, when we pull off a touchdown or a really good play the house starts to shake with those idiots jumping around and cheering.  Growing up in this small town has affected the way I interact with strangers.  I am genuinely friendly with them and hold the door for people.  When I do this in larger cities I am always surprised by just how appreciative people are of what we consider simple manners.

Throughout most of my elementary life I was pretty care free and clueless.  I never really thought about the next day and did nothing but play and have fun.  It wasn’t really until middle school that I really started to take shape and become my own person.  It was, at this time, that I had lost many of my friends and had plenty of time to think.  I went over what had caused me to lose my friends and observed how others treated each other and realized how to properly treat others.  I now know how to properly treat others and I can honestly say I don’t have any enemies in school.

Within high school I began to truly unfold.  I started forming my own, elaborate opinions and started seeing arguments from both sides.  I found my calling, protecting people by joining the Marine Corps.  I began to study what I enjoy and argue philosophy.  I became more disciplined, opinionated, and self sufficient.

Every day I discover more of myself; however, I truly haven’t fully discovered who I am.  I hope once I get out on my own I will begin to unfold myself even more.  I believe we truly discover who we are once we’re out of the house.