Each Day is a Gift

First written on July 20, 2025

As my time on the USS AMERICA (LHA 6) winds to a close, and by the time this publishes will be over, I get to spend a lot of time reflecting. If there is one thing my chain of command did well, it was pull responsibilities from me in order to wind down. For better or worse and the motivations behind that decision, it's only up to me to now do what the time that is given to me.

I sit in my office and think how I want to frame the rest of my life. I don't have the deep vision like Arnold where I know I'm going to be Mr. Olympia, then dominate Hollywood, and marry royalty as he sat at his modest post-WWII Austrian bedroom desk. There a definite plot points I want to hit along the journey, and I know how I want the story to end, but the route is a bit of a mystery still. That's okay with me, for now.

The framing I just spoke of hinges on the most simplistic principles I can find because the more complicated a mantra is the more caveats it will require. "One Day, or Day One" is a closely held favorite. It's important to me because a large part of me believes that much of my life was placed on hold to serve on this ship. Whether or not that is totally true remains subjective, but this website would need to be exhibit A as what was sacrificed in order to serve.

In other posts I've talked about inspiration and how it is everywhere. You just have to pay attention. The Greatest Showman (2017) is a film that really speaks to me. It resonates about a man who yearns to do more with their life and will not settle in mediocrity. This feeling has been with me for some time, my high school graduation quote was something I picked up in 7th grade, "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.- Albert Einstein." In some circles PT Barnum was a hack, a fraud, a glorified con man, and around some campfires they'd be right. What I admire about the movie though was a guy had a "million dreams" and he didn't settle. There was a fire, some dawg in him that needed to get out to serve a higher purpose. Hugh Jackman does an excellent job, to me, in projecting that yearning.

So now that my time is nearly over, I must begin Day One because One Day is so long in the making. Each day of consistency, normalcy, and expectant is a gift because I lived first hand what that life was like without those ingredients to a fulfilling life. I did what I could, did some cool things along the way, but not nearly within the scope of my capabilities. My ambitions have been festering, I need to live out my dreams and "From Now On" I will stand up and be the man I know I can be. My days in the incubator are over, and it's up to me to be the Greatest Showman of my own life.

It starts in the gym, it continues with rebuilding my relationship with my family, and it will continue to these passion projects such as my writing and the mission of this website. As my guy Teddy Roosevelt said, "I must remake my body," and I believe the rest can fall into place.