The Anthony Reeves Experience

You are going to have people in your life who will constantly rely upon you to defend their actions.    In most cases, you will not mind.  However, some of these people will make it hard for you to defend them.   Mostly because they KEEP doing things to make it harder to defend them.   They will tell you that they will not do the same thing again.  You will defend them and they will go and do the EXACT same thing again.    It is important to know that if the person is not trying to help you defend them, then they are just using your reputation to give them cover.    At some point, you have to accept the reality that if they do not help YOU defend them, you can not DEFEND THEM.

 “Whatever decision you make, make sure it is the RIGHT one and not the SAFE ONE”. 25 years later and I still remember these words.   And they still resonate to this day.   I was at a cross roads.  I had always wanted to be an officer in the military.   And in 1998, I was living one of my dreams as a naval officer.  I had been stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC since 1995 and it was my very first tour.  I had an active social life.  I was renting a town home on the beach.  I was dating (and eventually married) a beautiful woman.   I was rolling.  And then, things got better.  I got orders for my next duty station aboard the USS John F. Kennedy.  As a young officer in my career field (Industrial Hygiene Officer), this was the dream assignment.   I was going to be assigned to my favorite state (Florida) and I was so excited.    However, during this time, I was exploring my options.  I was trying to determine i...