Thanks to the Hunter Holmes Mc Guire VA medical center, I was able to enter this years Arts Festival. I hope my story is uplifting for someone and makes their day brighter. Thank you and may God be with us all.
Fletcher Antonio Peace
Hunter Holmes McGuire Richmond, VA
Category Personal Essay
Intuition and Decision Making
Introduction: Our feelings can guide us and help us make decisions, one morning I picked up a comic book GI Joe my grandparents bought me at the local grocery store, for some reason I wanted to read this book. I was told read something you like it will make reading easier and they were right as a child I loved reading, that is something I took into my adult hood. Whenever, I would have problems or a bad day I closed my eyes and think of a place I had read about. I find this was therapeutic and it often calmed me. My time in Desert Storm, Desert Shield, and Iraq Freedom, I would read when I got the time. I love to read Science Fiction novels this would take me far from the action.
I have days where things are just not going right, I go to my happy place this is a place where life are calm. The characters on my website are what I think about I close my eyes and ask them a question, something that is bothering me. I listen to the answer they give me, and a lot of the times it is right following my intuition my gut feeling helped me in a lot of situations. These Characters are not real, but they serve as a focal point and help me collect my thoughts.
As a boilermaker I took a job in Mt Storm West Virginia I had Night shift. I woke up the next day at about twelve pm and turned on the TV to look at the Discovery channel, a commercial came on for ITT Technical Institute Drafting and Design program. When I got back, I called them it was one of the best decisions I have ever made, I had the post 911 GI Bill. The student support advisor helped me fill out the application. I look back on my time in the Army the cold nights on guard duty in desert, I would ask myself what if I had a college degree. I watched my friends go off to college my parents could not afford to send me to college, but the military could help.
I went on to finish my bachelor’s degree in Technical Management writing comes with the territory. Thanks to the military I was able to fulfill my dream. I remember that first day I went off to boot camp at Fort Leonard wood Missouri not knowing what would happen, a scared young man who has never been further than Fredericksburg, VA. It is another decision I am proud of. My website is about my story how I see the world and how I would like for it to be reading and writing calms me I can drift away to another world.
After my time in the military getting used to civilian life was hard reading and writing helped me. Help me help myself is what I would always say. Some of the events in my writing I have experienced, and some are made up. Walk with me for a moment and enter a world where there is no bias and the only limit to your ability to achieve is you, the post 9/11 GI Bill made that a reality for me that cool spring morning in West Virginia, the decision I made that changed my life forever.
In Conclusion: No matter what decision we make we should be proud of that decision the people we meet may change the world and we could be a part of that change. I hope this story will help and inspire other Veterans to excel to greatness no matter how young or old we can all make a difference.