My standard reliable.
My story of reliable starts thirty years ago; growing up well below the standard of living in United States but perfect for South Louisiana, in a small double wide trailer, sitting on stilts against a quint bayou, if you wanted to eat it you grew it, shot it or traded for it. My story of reliability starts on those banks and morphed into my steady standard, that exists in my life today. My self-sufficient family relied on each other to pick the crops, to hunt with my dad, to getting the morning eggs at a very young age. To understand this story and how it has shaped me in the man I am today, we have to look past the idea of rich vrs poor, educated from non-educated, to concepts at the root of the bayou of family and culture.
At five years old my dad and I went hunting, as I walked with him carrying the hunt for the day. Fast forward a few years and my mom would relied on me to pick peaches or blueberries for the pie that night. I did these things out of necessity and because she knew that I would do them with gratitude and thoughtfulness. It was during my teenage years that I learned even more about reliability, I would spend my weekends working on the farm, not because I had to but because it was the right thing to do. Giving up my freedom to spend time feeding my family, instead of playing with school kids I drove the tractor or picked up pecans and sold them for money for my family. During my years in high school, I was the team captain at my local track team and got up earlier then most and drove the local high school bus (sometimes without a proper bus driving license) to pick up the team to head to the track meets or drop people off after school so that they could have a ride. Most people would say that I would give my shirt off my back to help, and relied on me to do so. My team and family relied on me.
Almost seventeen years ago my reliability evolved rapidly, when I walked into the recruiters office. At first my story was about starting a small Cajun family with my Air Force money. There was some limited critical thought, but this changed on 9/11, my thoughts got deeper. I wanted to serve, I wanted to help, I wanted to get involved any way I could. I believed that my family depended on me again, this time to defend the greater good. I volunteered for the first assignment to the Middle East that I could get. This was at the sacrifice of a best friend, she tried to talk me out of it but understood the standard I had to do it, it was part of my culture. After that experience in Afghanistan in early 2002, there was a deeper desire to do more to reach out. I transferred jobs to selective manned counterspace unit and spent the next decade and a half being that "guy", that a squadron commander could call anytime for any trip. I ended up going back overseas to a variety of places for thousands of days, sometimes on less than a day's notice or a gratuitous smile. Seven more times I went because they depended on me to do it. There was never a "no".
Eventually this "no" wore me down and my reliability was taken for granted. The commander's knew I could be counted on to take all the missions, anywhere, anytime all the time away from my family, any and everything I would do for the Air Force, for my brothers in arms, and my nation. My reliability had to evolve again, after those trips, I sat down and starting thinking on a much deeper level. I had to learn to say no, I had to learn to let go of the persona of that " go to guy". I had to learn that it was not about the actions one takes but by the strength inside to understand what is most important, yet another evolution from reliable; steady. I need to be "steady" in my friendships, in my job and in my life. All those years of been the dependent now I needed to be a constant and continuous to myself, psychologically and physiologically. I went back to school, several times, I got a nice window desk job, and now represent high levels of Air Force Space Command and report straight to General officers'. I even got my own phone that I do not have to share or wait for a satellite connection. This hopefully displays a visual for my life, for my standard and the how it has evolved over time, after I reflected on what direction the standard needed to take in my life. Demonstrating to the younger generation and my family how reliability can evolve from dependable to steady. Hopefully in the long run this standard and its evolutions will help me transition to my next life evolving along the way.
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