Staying focused on I why I became a soldier and why I had decided to stay in the Army after I had completed my initial tour of duty. I could sum up my motivation for staying in the Army with a single thought from an old 1980's West Point recruiting tape. It helped me think of the good times during the bad times and vise versa. it went something like this..."I realized somewhere between wet feet and cold coffee that I would never become wealthy as an army officer...but at the same time I knew that I would always avoid the frustration of irrelevance"...from my first day as a private to my last day as a major in the Army I always believed that everything that I was doing made a difference and was important in some way even if in that moment I couldn't see how it made a difference or was important...that's how I got through the bad day(s) in the US Army...Thanks for the opportunity to share