This is the most valuable thing I have,…and I want to share it to you.

I am not an astronaut, but I have become something so much more. When I was a child, all I wanted to be was an astronaut. I went to space events, watched space shows, and dreamed of how amazing it would be to go to space one day. But time always marches forward, and priorities have a way of changing. I found myself grown up in career I never expected, in places I never thought I would go, doing things that child I was could never imagine.

Decades passed, and despite all my achievements, awards, and accolades, I found myself walking out of my tent in Afghanistan to sit on a rock alone with my gun. With no one else left to blame, I sat alone wanting nothing more than to stop what felt like the loss of my entire life up to that point. It was only the thought of never seeing my children again that eventually took me back inside to confide in my friend and give him my gun.

That memory sat heavy for years of the moment alone in the moonlight sitting in desperate contemplation of my children. It was a continual motivator in hard times over the ensuing years, as life never stops giving you new obstacles and challenges. It is also astonishingly possible to still find ways to rationalize the occasional bad decision if it is only held back by external motivations. It wasn’t until years later that I realized while looking in the mirror, that there has always been one child depending on me since the beginning.

I realized that the child I once was, full of hopes and dreams never faded, but waited hoping for me to become the person I could be for him. It gives me an unshakable motivation to strive each day to meet the expectations of my younger self. It's not about achieving childhood dreams, but embodying his aspirations everyday through my actions, that allows me to be the person I need to be for him.

I am not an astronaut, but I am the person I always hoped to become, because I do the things that must be done. Now I am not special, nor is this lesson unique, which means anyone can find value in it for themselves. There is always someone out there struggling to do the right thing, big or small, any day of their life. Whether it's you or someone you know struggling with daily decisions, remember that acknowledging our past selves can guide us towards being our best selves. So for those who need it, let’s look in the mirror at that child we were, and say it because we truly mean it.

This is who we are, so this is what we do.