Veterans Project

The Veteran's History Project was definitely one of my favorites. It's still a project that I think about time to time to this day, and I try to take what I've learned from it and apply it to my daily life. My veteran, in his interview, truly spoke to me, and many of his words still run through my mind when I'm in certain situations. After this project, I have the utmost respect for our veterans and what they've done for us.

My veteran was James Starkey. He was born in 1977, and joined the U.S. Army. He was upset over what he was doing with his life, bouncing job to job, really not getting too far. One morning, he woke up and decided "Hey, I'm going to go join the military." He stated that he was going to whichever recruiter approached him first. In this case, it was the Army.

Alexis Marx, Hannah Kelley and I all interviewed him, and learned a lot about him. He had seen plenty of awful things in his time in the military, and it sounded as if he had the "full military experience," so to speak. He talked about all the travel, going from Atlanta, to his base overseas, and even going to Alaska. He had special "cold weather" training up there in Alaska, which was interesting to hear about. He served during an era where there wasn't really a huge war happening. It was basic military presence in certain areas, and in some cases, they were attacked. I'll never forget when he told the story of how he lost a sergeant that was really close to him and his unit. He spoke about the shock of it all, and the emotions he had gone through. I couldn't fathom even thinking about that type of a loss. He finished off his interview by giving us all advice. Don't take anything for granted, stay humble, and to work hard. He told us to not live an entitled life, and to work for everything that we want.

I'd say this definitely was a successful project for me. It spoke to me on a personal level and it's definitely something that I will remember for years to come. I took his advice, tried to continue to work hard for whatever I want, and to not live an entitled lifestyle like many people seem to these days.