Advice for 2021

Chris Albert 00:00:00 (link to this point)

You know, one of the things I'm always saying is that if this country is gonna get better, if this country is gonna go on the right path, we have to step up as a community. Veterans are the sleeping giant in this country, and it is time for us to step up. That's why I wanna talk to you about The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. Now you might have thought about The Citadel in the past as this corps of cadets, this military institution, but they have programs for veterans that don't involve you joining the corps of cadets, don't involve you wearing a uniform every day, and don't involve you living a military lifestyle. If you wanna do that, great.

But if that's not what you're up for right now after your military career, then you don't have to do that, and you can access some of the best programs in the world. The Citadel has some hot degrees in intelligence, tactical strength and conditioning, engineering, and project management. And there's five student type options for veterans. There's graduate college, there's evening undergraduate, there's active duty students, non cadet day program, returning cadet veterans, and online programs. The academic offerings include undergraduate, graduate, college transfer, graduate certificates, and online degrees.

Veterans have access to every single academic degree the college offers, and they have the most flexibility when it comes to their schedule. They can major in anything offered to the cadets and would take those classes during the day with the cadets. But then there's other programs offered in the evening or online and graduate programs to choose from too to make things so flexible for you. The US World and News report has named the Citadel the number one column for veterans in the South. And for veterans who choose to take classes on campus, they get to be a civilian student in a military environment.

They don't have to wear uniforms, like I said before. They don't have to join the military culture of the corps of cadets. The atmosphere is a really good transition environment from military to civilian life. There's an organic mentorship that comes from taking classes with the cadets. The cadets wanna talk to you guys.

They wanna hear your stories. They wanna know what it was actually like to be in the military. A lot of the a lot of these men and women are gonna go on to serve as officers in the military, and they're gonna exact change. And they need to hear from you guys. They you also get access to The Citadel's alumni network.

Like I said, this is one of the most illustrious institutions in the world. And when you join the Citadel and you graduate, you're part of their alumni network. That includes so many leaders. It includes so many business leaders, so many leaders from the military, and so many leaders from the government. The college's core values of honor, duty, and respect align with veteran culture.

They align with who you are, and it's something that you're not gonna get anywhere else in this country. There is tons of special assistance for veterans at The Citadel. And whether you're a veteran or active duty military personnel, you can take advantage of these programs. You also get access to the veteran student success center, the career center, the academic success center, the student veteran association, and all campus clubs. If you wanna play rugby, you could do that.

If you wanna you wanna lift weights, you could do that. You get access to everything that the students get. There's fellowship opportunities. There's tons and tons of financial assistance. So if you're interested in getting a degree from The Citadel and building your life, head over to citadel.edu/veterans.

This is Chris Albert, and I'm here to remind you of one thing. Someday, you're going to die. And that's not some morbid statement or scary idea. It's solid fact. Your time here on this earth is limited.

And we need to be reminded of this as much as possible for one simple reason, to live your best life while you can. This is the Warrior Soul podcast.

Hey. Look. You know, I hate to be a Debbie Downer here, but, you know, it's 2021. Right? And there's, like, a million people out there who are saying everything was magically gonna get better because 2020 was over.

And I know that with this community, you guys know better. Right? We all know better. We all know that there is no, like, magic to those numbers even though it really really seems like there is. Right?

You know, it being 2020 right now versus 2019 versus 2018 versus 2021. Right? The the the difference doesn't necessarily come in in those numbers. It comes in our mindsets, It comes in our brains. It comes in what we're prepared to deal with, what we're able to deal with.

Right? And if anything, you know, a lot of people might regret 2020, but if anything, it's made a lot of us more able, more able to deal with problems, more able to be flexible, more able to keep going despite the things that have popped up in front of us. I've been seeing it for a long time. Right? It's not a matter of if a tragedy is gonna happen in your life.

It's not a matter of if hard times are coming in your life. They're coming. They're always coming. Right? And and the end of 2020 doesn't mean the end of hard times.

It means that you are a bit more prepared for things that might happen in your life in the future. Right? That's all it means. And so, you know, I think one of the things that we need to think about here in this community is, you know, we we dealt with a little bit of hardship right now. Right?

Some of us have dealt with a lot of hardship. What kind of people do we wanna be in the midst of this? Because the hardship's not over. Right? If if 2021 turns out to be crazy just like 2020 did, what kind of people do we wanna be?

Do we wanna be the people who are doing nothing? Do we wanna be the people who are, you know, pushing forward in spite of the odds? Do we wanna be the people who are pushing forward and helping others through this whole thing? Right? You get to decide that.

And one of the crazy things about history is this. Right? So, like, a lot of us think I, you know, I grew up. I I always wished I could have been part of the World War two generation. Right?

I always wished I could have been part of something bigger than myself. And I I know a lot of people from my generation think like that because our grandparents were the World War two generation. Right? And we sat there and we listened to stories of you know, from our grandfathers, what they did, you know, how they served, what they were doing on d day, that kind of stuff. Right?

But we never think to ourselves as things pop up here and now what we're gonna do. Right? Maybe nine eleven was the last time that happened. Right? A lot of, you know, thousands and thousands of Americans lined up to try to try to join, to try to serve.

Right? But now we're in our post service lives. Right? Well, most of the people who listen to this podcast are anyways. Right?

We're in our post service lives. And I hear so many people talking about, you know, how society is crumbling, how the world is falling down around us. Well, what are you doing to stop that? Are you taking an active role in your community? Are you going out there and and trying to lead your family, lead your children?

Are you doing something to try to make things better? Right? Think about that. Right? This this if anything, twenty twenty's taught us that local government matters.

Right? Local government matters. You know, the presidency matters a lot, but but who your mayor is, who your city council members are, who your board of education is, who your governor is, all that really, really, really matters. And we all gotta think about what we want our local government to look like, what we're going to tolerate. Right?

Because if you're just sitting there and you're complaining about what's going on and you're complaining because your your local city's been shut down for for six months and there are no answers out there, well, you're not doing much. Right? You need to get out there and you need to stop observing and start participating. You see, that's the difference here. Right?

A lot of you guys, you got caught just being observers of your lives. Right? Just being observers of your lives, not participants. Right? You you went through the motions.

You woke up one day, and you found yourself in a world that was increasingly encroaching around you. And that's not just a COVID thing. That's been happening for a long time. It's been happening to a lot of us. And if you want things to be better, if you want 2021 to be everything that you want it to be, well, let me put it this way.

You're not gonna get what you want all the time, but you'll always, always get the reward from what you work for. Right? You always get something from what you work for. That might not be what you want, but you'll get lessons. You'll get know how.

You'll gain confidence, and you'll gain ability. Right? And that's all this world will give you. It's not gonna magically give you what you want. It's not gonna magically turn things into, you know, what you wish they were, but it will give you the skills that you need to get through this world and get through it the right way.

And so I hope that in 2021, you decide that regardless of what happens, regardless of how the world is, you're gonna be participants. And through your participation, I hope that you get those skills, that you get that know how, that you learn those lessons, that you come out of 2021 as a stronger, more capable human being. And that's all we can ever hope for. Hope that makes sense, gents. Going to be talking a bit about this in the coming episodes, and wish you guys a very happy New Year and a great start to 2021.

This is Chris Albert with the Warrior Soul podcast, and I am out.