ROAD OF LIFE

31 December, 2023 is down the tubes.  Some of it was good, some of it was not so great, but that is what we call life.  Life is a road with many side roads – some of them lead back to the main road, some of them go completely a different direction.

1January I got one of my side roads which leads back to the main highway – I started my pension.  Something I have planned for and worked hard all my life.  Planning started many moons ago.  I knew if I didn’t, I’d be up the creek with no paddle.  Right after high school, I knew I didn’t want to spend the next few years in school again, so I went a different route  – Vo-Tec school.  I am a graduate of Boise State University, Vocational Technical school. Got my “degree” in mechanics.  Only took me one full year of school.  I then took a half semester of auto body repair, then I went out and got a job.  I didn’t have to take a loan to go to school, I did my homework, found some scholarships, applies, granted.  I also would get out of school at 1500 every day, then I rushed across town to my job.  Yes it was long days, but I paid my way.  That’s what pisses me off about today, all these “kids” who take out loans for school and now want me to pay it back for them – I never co-signed their loans so why should I have to pay them back??  That education served me well.  I have been able to use the knowledge throughout my life.  There was another road I wanted to take, the military, but there was a “detour sign” and I got turned down a side road.

I always wanted to join the military because I was lucky enough to be born in the best country in the world and I felt I had a debt I owed my country.  December 1974 changed my life forever – I took a ricochet from a pistol in my right eye which required surgery and 7 stitches across the middle of my right eye.  My vision didn’t get good enough to join until 1983 and even then I had to slip in through the back door.  I joined the Army Band.   My recruiter went to bat for me, “After all he is just playing the trombone in a band”.  So I got in.  Once in I could now move around.  I then joined an Infantry Division and later on switched to Combat Engineer.  No I never did active duty, my vision wouldn’t pass, I did the Idaho National Guard, then moved to the Army Reserve.  Now I am passed the detour and back on track.  I had two goals:  get enough time for a military pension and get to the highest rank I could – I achieved both.  22yrs, 4m, 18d, (but who’s counting) and the rank of E9, highest NCO rank in the Army besides Sergeant Major of the Army, now I am reaping the benefits of Prior Planning. 

As side roads present themselves, I found one that had a couple signs on it – Professional Hunting Guide.  So I left my good steady mechanics job and became a hunting guide.  With a life time of hunting, horses and outdoors, yet I was surprised the outfitter offered me the job.  All this is covered in the book I wrote. GUIDE’S LIFE.  If you want all the details of how I got the job, read the book.  Juggling my work with my military career was pretty easy, doing it while a guide took a little work but it was it all panned out.  Now came a “T” in the road.  This meant I needed to choose either left or right.  There was no turning back.  So being left handed, I took the left hand turn, leading me to Denmark. 

5 December 1992 I packed my bags and headed to Denmark.  31 years later I am still here.  I was lucky enough to be able to continue and complete my military career with a little traveling to Germany.  The experiences, places I have been, seen because of taking that left hand turn is something I would never have had if I had stayed in Idaho.  I am now completing over a 30 year career as a farrier.  While working, I was able to study and take the Danish national farrier certification.  Later on I successfully completed certification with The Guild of Professional Farriers in the States. 

When we start down the road of life we never really know where it will lead, all depends on the turns we take.  Once in a while I have had a person ask me if I would have done anything different in my life if I could live it over?  I have thought about it a few times.  If I had taken a different road then it would not have been my life.  No there is nothing I would have done different because if I had, then I would not be me.

One other thing I have learned.  I grew up hearing, “Opportunity knocks only once”.  Sometimes those good things are offered only once, so sometimes maybe a second look is needed before we say yes or no.  2024, well that is a new road I guess we will see where this road takes us.