Prepared for the South High National Honor Society:
What an honor to speak to such amazing, young bright people with such promising futures, ability to succeed, and ability to impact this world and the lives of others.
I am a Family Nurse Practitioner, President of the Children’s Museum, The Executive Director of the Downtown Development Authority, and now a Mayoral candidate.
I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a runner, a coffee addict, and I am American Solider.
I am a warrior and a member of a team.
I serve the people of the United States and live the army values.
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.
I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself. I am an expert and I am a professional.
I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.
I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.
I am an American soldier.
For those of you that don’t know that is the Soldier’s Creed. These are powerful words and words to live by and today I want to talk to you specifically about three sentences.
I will always place the mission first.
When you think about what you want we often think of it in terms of a goal or an outcome. Another way to think of it would be as a mission. I’m sure you have had several missions and tonight one of them is graduating high school with this NHS distinction, maybe your next mission is to go to college, or join the military, whatever it is you have your end point and then consciously or subconsciously you lay out a plan on how to accomplish it.
I’ve had many missions in my life: graduating high school, college, graduate school, joining the military, and building the children’s museum to name a few.
I’d like to share with you a specific example from my deployment in the Dominican Republic. My mission during that time was to teach combat lifesaver to 1500 Caribbean soldiers over 10 days. Combat life save is what many soldiers learn so that when they are in the front line, they can provide life saving techniques to their fellow soldiers until they can get them to help. So here I have this clearly defined mission, but not such a clearly defined plan in how to accomplish that mission. The military is notorious for saying here is the end point, now get there. This was my first lesson with that.
First, I created an a bridge class, one that could be taught in a day instead of the typical two days, I secured the necessary supplies for the course, and was ready to go.
What I didn’t factor in were the obstacles that I would encounter a long the way.
The first day I showed up, I had a group of soldier with such a thick Caribbean accent that I could barely understand them. The next day, we had our Dominican soldiers come to class and most of them only spoke Spanish! In the first two days we had significant language barriers that we had to overcome. I had to quickly get and interpreter and adjust the class to being mostly a hands on interactive learning class rather than a lecture class. I had to adapt to accomplish the mission.
Around the eighth day, I started to get a little tired and felt like I wasn’t being an effective teacher. I had to overcome. I recruited some fellow soldiers to help me invigorate the class with different instructors.
We finished teaching the class and completing the mission because of a two reasons:
1. We always focused on the mission and didn’t stop short of completion. Rather, we figured out ways to adapt to challenges situations and overcame obstacles.
2. I became we. When I struggled, I turned for help. I didn’t say, I can do this on my own. I said, I need you. Will you help me? And WE were successful.
I will never quit.
My dad was enlisted in the military and so I had basic needs but was poor enough that I remember hiding in the bathroom of a birthday party when my friend opened her presents because I didn’t have one for her.
I loved school and reading. I dreamed of going to college. This was a huge dream considering no one in my family for generations had ever gone to college.
I studied hard in school, I took challenging classes, and my senior year I won a scholarship to live in Germany. But I didn’t go. I didn’t go because I knew that if I wanted to go to college I would have to pay for it myself. My senior year, I worked two jobs, saved every dollar I earned, just to go to college.
In my first year of college I met my husband and we got married when I was 19. After 10 years and 2 sons, we divorced. Again, I recognized that education would help me get out of my situation so as a single mom, I returned to school to get my graduate degree and joined the military, right after 9/11.
I went on to have a very productive and satisfying career in medicine, met my current husband and here I am.
I feel like I have gone through life always clawing my way out, but I’ve never accepted defeat, and I’ve never given up.
I was the first person to graduate college and then graduate school and now my children will all go to college if they want to.
Never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
This is my favorite sentence in the Soldier’s Creed.
When I was in Mexico three years ago, I almost drowned. The waves were crashing against some rocks and the water was very dangerous. No one was allowed to swim and the day before a woman had been sucked away and died. I came up to some rocks that I could either climb over or when the waves went out, I could run in front of the rocks on the beach. There was a strange man sitting on some walks like a billy goat and I remember thinking how strange that he was sitting there. So the waves went out and I tried to run in front of the rocks, but I didn’t make it because the waves knocked me down. I remember thinking I would crash into the rocks and put my knees up for the impact, but I didn’t crash into the rock, because the undertow pull me away. I tried to stand up. The undertow pulled me away. I tried to stand up again, the undertow pulled me away further. This went on for about 5 minutes or so and meanwhile I am getting sucked out further and further, feeling more and more tired, thinking how can I get out of this? Can I get out of this? I might not get out of this. After awhile I really thought that I was going to drown. There were so many people on the shore watching, shouting at me, but then the man on the rocks came in and he walked to me like there was no undertow and he pulled me out.
He saved me. His name was Rudy and as quickly as he appeared, he disappeared.
After that I questioned my life and existence, and why was I saved that day?
What was I doing to help society especially my fallen comrades. What was I giving back?
Shortly after I was standing in a children’s museum in Bloomington and thought, we need this in Cheyenne and for our children so that we help our children grow and learn and be excited about education.
It’s important to take care of the people next to you and behind you, those you will never know in a time your will never see. It doesn’t have to be big like starting a non profit, it can be simple like volunteering your time and becoming a mentor. How? Spend time with others, be there, listen, encourage.
Desiree, Andrew, Donni, Codee. These are all people I mentor.
In Laramie County, 1 out of 4 children did not graduate high school last year. Those are your classmates.
Are there people you can help in your life, who are your fallen comrades? Identify them, reach out to them, say how can I help you, I have a resource and I want to share it with you. Together, “we” is so much more effectively than “I”.
In life, you will succeed. You have already put yourself in that position. You have worked hard in school, joined the NHS, and are soon going to graduate high school.
Keep doing that. Keep putting yourselves in those positions.
But I also want to challenge you to go one step farther: put yourself out there, expose your vulnerabilities to help impact the lives of others.
Remember, always place the mission, never quit and never leave a fallen comrade.
I am a Family Nurse Practitioner, President of the Children’s Museum, The Executive Director of the Downtown Development Authority, and now a Mayoral candidate.
I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a runner, a coffee addict, and I am American Solider.
I am a warrior and a member of a team.
I serve the people of the United States and live the army values.
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.
I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself. I am an expert and I am a professional.
I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.
I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.
I am an American soldier.
For those of you that don’t know that is the Soldier’s Creed. These are powerful words and words to live by and today I want to talk to you specifically about three sentences.
I will always place the mission first.
When you think about what you want we often think of it in terms of a goal or an outcome. Another way to think of it would be as a mission. I’m sure you have had several missions and tonight one of them is graduating high school with this NHS distinction, maybe your next mission is to go to college, or join the military, whatever it is you have your end point and then consciously or subconsciously you lay out a plan on how to accomplish it.
I’ve had many missions in my life: graduating high school, college, graduate school, joining the military, and building the children’s museum to name a few.
I’d like to share with you a specific example from my deployment in the Dominican Republic. My mission during that time was to teach combat lifesaver to 1500 Caribbean soldiers over 10 days. Combat life save is what many soldiers learn so that when they are in the front line, they can provide life saving techniques to their fellow soldiers until they can get them to help. So here I have this clearly defined mission, but not such a clearly defined plan in how to accomplish that mission. The military is notorious for saying here is the end point, now get there. This was my first lesson with that.
First, I created an a bridge class, one that could be taught in a day instead of the typical two days, I secured the necessary supplies for the course, and was ready to go.
What I didn’t factor in were the obstacles that I would encounter a long the way.
The first day I showed up, I had a group of soldier with such a thick Caribbean accent that I could barely understand them. The next day, we had our Dominican soldiers come to class and most of them only spoke Spanish! In the first two days we had significant language barriers that we had to overcome. I had to quickly get and interpreter and adjust the class to being mostly a hands on interactive learning class rather than a lecture class. I had to adapt to accomplish the mission.
Around the eighth day, I started to get a little tired and felt like I wasn’t being an effective teacher. I had to overcome. I recruited some fellow soldiers to help me invigorate the class with different instructors.
We finished teaching the class and completing the mission because of a two reasons:
1. We always focused on the mission and didn’t stop short of completion. Rather, we figured out ways to adapt to challenges situations and overcame obstacles.
2. I became we. When I struggled, I turned for help. I didn’t say, I can do this on my own. I said, I need you. Will you help me? And WE were successful.
I will never quit.
My dad was enlisted in the military and so I had basic needs but was poor enough that I remember hiding in the bathroom of a birthday party when my friend opened her presents because I didn’t have one for her.
I loved school and reading. I dreamed of going to college. This was a huge dream considering no one in my family for generations had ever gone to college.
I studied hard in school, I took challenging classes, and my senior year I won a scholarship to live in Germany. But I didn’t go. I didn’t go because I knew that if I wanted to go to college I would have to pay for it myself. My senior year, I worked two jobs, saved every dollar I earned, just to go to college.
In my first year of college I met my husband and we got married when I was 19. After 10 years and 2 sons, we divorced. Again, I recognized that education would help me get out of my situation so as a single mom, I returned to school to get my graduate degree and joined the military, right after 9/11.
I went on to have a very productive and satisfying career in medicine, met my current husband and here I am.
I feel like I have gone through life always clawing my way out, but I’ve never accepted defeat, and I’ve never given up.
I was the first person to graduate college and then graduate school and now my children will all go to college if they want to.
Never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
This is my favorite sentence in the Soldier’s Creed.
When I was in Mexico three years ago, I almost drowned. The waves were crashing against some rocks and the water was very dangerous. No one was allowed to swim and the day before a woman had been sucked away and died. I came up to some rocks that I could either climb over or when the waves went out, I could run in front of the rocks on the beach. There was a strange man sitting on some walks like a billy goat and I remember thinking how strange that he was sitting there. So the waves went out and I tried to run in front of the rocks, but I didn’t make it because the waves knocked me down. I remember thinking I would crash into the rocks and put my knees up for the impact, but I didn’t crash into the rock, because the undertow pull me away. I tried to stand up. The undertow pulled me away. I tried to stand up again, the undertow pulled me away further. This went on for about 5 minutes or so and meanwhile I am getting sucked out further and further, feeling more and more tired, thinking how can I get out of this? Can I get out of this? I might not get out of this. After awhile I really thought that I was going to drown. There were so many people on the shore watching, shouting at me, but then the man on the rocks came in and he walked to me like there was no undertow and he pulled me out.
He saved me. His name was Rudy and as quickly as he appeared, he disappeared.
After that I questioned my life and existence, and why was I saved that day?
What was I doing to help society especially my fallen comrades. What was I giving back?
Shortly after I was standing in a children’s museum in Bloomington and thought, we need this in Cheyenne and for our children so that we help our children grow and learn and be excited about education.
It’s important to take care of the people next to you and behind you, those you will never know in a time your will never see. It doesn’t have to be big like starting a non profit, it can be simple like volunteering your time and becoming a mentor. How? Spend time with others, be there, listen, encourage.
Desiree, Andrew, Donni, Codee. These are all people I mentor.
In Laramie County, 1 out of 4 children did not graduate high school last year. Those are your classmates.
Are there people you can help in your life, who are your fallen comrades? Identify them, reach out to them, say how can I help you, I have a resource and I want to share it with you. Together, “we” is so much more effectively than “I”.
In life, you will succeed. You have already put yourself in that position. You have worked hard in school, joined the NHS, and are soon going to graduate high school.
Keep doing that. Keep putting yourselves in those positions.
But I also want to challenge you to go one step farther: put yourself out there, expose your vulnerabilities to help impact the lives of others.
Remember, always place the mission, never quit and never leave a fallen comrade.
