Adult Realizations and Dreams Within Reach

Being an adult is a wonderful thing, but being an adult with the ability to see your dreams within a finger’s grasp… That is far better than some of the sweetest victories.

 

In my early adult life, I worked in the healthcare industry and had it rough financially. When my pay was barely covering rent and bills while leaving me very little money for food and supplies… It was emotionally draining. I was lucky if I could afford anything related to my passions and hobbies. I had a lot of apathy about my life because I was trying to determine if I (as an adult) had failed or if I had not come into an industry that best suited my skill-set.

Fast forward to the current day… I am many years established in my current job and have been slowly able to put money away in savings while affording to fuel my primary hobby (video games). In addition to that, my friend Ahki encouraged me to pursue creating a video game talk show (which I have) and having the money to buy equipment, games, and other things has really helped make that a reality. In September, I enrolled back into kung fu school to get back on track with martial arts again which has been emotionally and mentally empowering. Now… I am able to get into one piece in my life that I have been meaning to get into for many years: firearms training and shooting sports.

In my younger years, I had looked into possibly doing military service since I thought that it would be a good fit for me. I had a neighbor who lived next to my parents who was a Vietnam War vet who had taught me quite a bit about firearms and I had respected him for his service for our country. My parents were very much against military service and around age 17… I found my aptitude for computers growing while in a balancing act of fighting my family for what I wanted to do in my future as far as a career. One thing always remained, my love and respect of the amazing engineering of firearms. I have my memories of the late neighbor as he passed away a few years ago and respected the lessons within my mind

It wouldn’t be until I turned 21 that my inner firearms fascination piqued it’s head again in a major way, but working as an underpaid healthcare worker… I really couldn’t afford to look into firearms. It was always “You could buy a great 9mm firearm… with no ammo, tools, or lubrication/cleaners… or buy 3-4 weeks of food… just saying…” that always resonated in my mind. I wasn’t much a fan of buying “cheap” firearms that could jam or be compromised in its operation. For me, I wanted to make sure I could afford a quality made firearm that would be comfortable to shoot, be able to stand up to home defense duty, and made very well. It seems almost dream like, but I am finally able to look into firearms ownership soon.

Some may read this and say “What’s the point? You’re in martial arts, you said you’re more of an IT guy, and have no military inclination… Why?” For me, firearms training is part of my personal defense triangle philosophy. Mental knowledge, combat/martial arts, and weapon training. All of these share equal priority in my book. Mental knowledge being the vigilance of reading up on cyber security, learning about exploits be they physical or computer related, and even mental sparring/negotiation. Combat and martial arts training I feel is important to train the body to learn how to counter attack without a weapon and defend one’s self from severe harm to the body, Weapons training I feel is important and not only should cover weapons in optimal condition… but also provide skills on training with a weapon, knowledge on how to use a weapon optimally, and (most of all) maintenance & care of a weapon. Be it a semi-automatic pistol or a simple sword… practice makes weapon use perfect. For years… my weapons training vector had been zero proficiency points in firearms since I had not gone shooting in many years nor did I own my own firearm to be able to get regular practice in.

Here’s to a year of getting up to spec with my desire to equalize my defense triangle philosophy.

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