Hoping to help others, save the world, stop pollution, stop hunger, stop homelessness, and have a milkshake in the evening before going to bed is what I would like to do.
As a writer, I am mostly concerned with developing my own creative non-fiction writing to tell the stories of people and promote awareness about social issues.
As a person and an American, I am proud of our country. I am proud enough to remove rose colored glasses and attempt to see America as it really is. The country is beautiful and has done a lot of good for the world. As sad as it is to say, America has also done a lot of bad, mistreated a lot of people, and kidnapped success and happiness from weaker people. We are a nation built on destruction, yet we are a good nation. In school, many of us pledged allegiance to her, but what does that really mean?
In order to tackle social issues, it seems pertinant to first identify them, to see them. But, how do we do this?
That is why I write. I write to investigate people and present their story for others to read. My goal as I develop as a writer is to learn how to present a message for readers to allow them to develop their own perspective from the information presented.
Sometimes, I don’t write about others. Sometimes, I try to offer my own experience.
I am an eight-year Army veteran. I served in the artiller as a cannon-fire direction specialist (I told the gun where to point). I ended a tour in Germany with an eight-month trip to Kosovo. While there, my mother died of cancer, I redeployed to Fort Belvoir, Virginia on a compassionate reassignment. During my tenure at Belvoir, on September 11th, the Pentagon was attacked. Our unit performed security operations for Fort Belvoir. I also responded to the Pentagon on the night of September 11th as a driver for an officer in our battalion. That night changed my life.
I reenlisted as a broadcast journalist, went back to Germany, and while there I took my first college class. Since that night in my first English class, my life has been a quest. The destination is in learning how to enjoy the journey. Because of the pain I have experienced in my own life, I feel for others in pain. For them, I try to write. They deserve their stories to be told because they are the real heroes.
Too often are our heros football players that spend their off hours dog-fighting. Why?
We can move away from this.
