I have struggled mightily over these last four years. Struggled to stay sober, struggled to put a roof over my head, struggled to put food in my mouth and I’m still struggling to pay my deceased dog’s vet bills.

I struggle to stay in shape so I won’t have to take the VA up on their generous offer to assign me a long term, dead end hospital bed. (Yes, Vietnam had an upside.)

The upside of all that struggle was that I wasn’t navel gazing. I wasn’t in some existential funk about where I came from or where I’m going. There was no time.

I fell asleep at the kitchen table wiped out from double shifts and long hours. But I was driven, not distracted.

I might have been dead tired but I was more alive than ever. It was full tilt boogie 16 hours a day.

We are meant to struggle.

We struggle from our first breath. We’re not built for comfort, we’re built for speed.

That’s why we have strong muscles and hard heads. Those muscles grow when we struggle them. When we overload them.

When muscle breaks down, it overcompensates so it can meet the next challenge. In fitness parlance, this is called muscular hypertrophy.

We are meant to go onto battle with our demons. Struggle is what gives us life.

And as we all know, there are no Medals of Honor in peace time.

Struggle ye so that ye might live.