Pinch Me, is This Happening?

When I was a child the only goal I had set was to be in the military. That happened at the age of 17. I enlisted and my parents had to sign my permission slip. Yes, I was too young to enlist on my own.

I enlisted as a split-operations training soldier. This means that I went to Basic Training during the summer between my junior and senior year of high school. After graduation I was an active-duty soldier and within a year I was deployed to Afghanistan.

This is me during my first deployment to Afghanistan. I was assigned to 2 Battalion 504 (PIR), 1 Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, during this deployment from April 2005 to March 2006. 

Once in the military I found a home amongst many other children of adversity. I discovered that there were many non-professionals filling ranks that I assumed to be filled with professionals. The military was not exactly what I was expecting.

I began to wish for something different. I was not exactly, happy, with what I was doing. Do not take this the wrong way. I am extremely proud of my service and would not change the course of my life. However, I would have exited the military after my first enlistment, had I known what I wanted to do with my life.

I remember at one point in my career telling people that I would exit in a heart beat if I could get a job driving cars for a living. Anything to do with cars was my passion to be honest. It has been since I was a child. From racing, to working on classic cars and driving to relax, vehicles have been my passion.

I finally left the military in July of 2013. Before exiting I secured acceptance to East Tennessee State University as a Mass Communications major with a concentration in Journalism. I never wanted to be a news reporter but wanted to write for magazines. My goal was to secure employment writing for a car magazine. This would enable me to travel and drive exotic cars and trucks.

I am now in my junior year of college and have secured an internship with Revma Media. My major is still journalism but my minor is Radio/TV/Film, or broadcast journalism. My internship will take place over the summer in multiple states. I will be filming rodeos and car shows.

I will be working on multiple shows that air on Velocity Channel with Revma Media. I now have the most amazing opportunities ahead of me. I never thought that I would be working on shows of this caliber this quick in my career. The learning experiences will transfer over for years to come.

My first day on the job with Revma Media. We were filming product features for Lokar Inc. Lokar is the manufacture of performance parts for cars.

I will also be working on my own project. This project is a concept of my creation. It is a web-series that will provide many different forms of content. All the content will focus on guest, food, overland adventure and discussions of American Culture. I have secured sponsors and funding for this project already.

I have started working and am very excited because what I do now does not feel like work. I have experienced moments of nostalgia in realization these dreams are now coming true too. I have worked hard to get here and cannot wait to prove I deserve it.

Now, somebody pinch me so that I know this is real.