Let us take a trip back to Yuma, Arizona between the time periods of late September 2003 and early August 2004. Brand new to the Marine Corps’ fleet and now serving as a true Marine, you become quite open to ideas and theories placed at the dinner table, and trust me, there is plenty to go around.

You check-in, you get your room, you get your work section but most importantly, is your roommate. This is the person that will be with you the most of the time and you want to make sure you get a good relationship because there is nothing worse then having an odd vibe with your room’s half. My first roommate REAL was a guy named Johnson. Johnson was from somewhere in Texas, like me, but I forgot. I could tell he was quite southern and so we got along great. He usually came in late at night and stayed out on the weekends and I wouldn’t see him for awhile. We had some good times together, during field-day, playing Madden, and the awkward moments at work. He had some influence on me vice what I thought he did. He really showed me the big picture behing serious events and how they are all not that serious but blown up to instill a sense of perfection that if failed, would surely be unforgiving. While some people spent hours on cleaning their room during field-day, we probably spent a little over 20 minutes. This proved to be a very effective way to save time during future field-days and I haven’t failed since. With this little tool, I was able to apply it to many situations and its saved me countless hours of tireless work. So this ones to you, Thanks Johnson, you saved me alot of effort in places were effort isn’t needed.