“I dropped out of high school at the beginning of my junior year. It’s a long story. Eventually, I got my GED and joined the Army. I wanted to do something positive with my life.

“I was working long hours and making money, but it was so boring. I hated my life. So I decided to make a change. I decided to join the Army. They talked me into joining the Army Reserve, which still blows my mind because I joined to go and be gone. I ended up being gone for only six or seven months. Then I did active reserve on base for the next few years.

“People tell me, ‘You were still in the military. You did more than most people have done.’ But that’s a lot of BS. I just wasted a bunch of tax dollars. That’s why I got out. I never did anything. Every time we were supposed to deploy, it got canceled. What was the point?

“Where I was stationed, we worked on helicopters. But it was the Reserve. It was a joke. It was just a bunch of kids coming in who didn’t care about being there at all. They were there only because they could go to college and get it paid for. I wanted more than that. I wanted to deploy. I feel like I never really got a chance to do my part.”

— Patrick Burgess

Related:

• Young daughters provide motivation for dad

The post Army Reserve experience not what he anticipated appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“When I got out of the Army Reserve, my ex-wife and I were in the process of getting a divorce. At first, we had shared custody of our two kids. Then she started doing drugs, so I got my kids fulltime.

“They are the reason I do what I do. I work at the Walmart Distribution Center in New Caney, and I’m going to college to become an instrumentation tech. I have to be at work at 3 o’clock today, and I’ll be there until 2 or 3 in the morning. Then I leave the house at 6 a.m. to get to school by 7:45. I run on 5-Hour Energy all week.

“If it was just me, honestly, I don’t even know what I’d be doing right now. It’s because of my kids that I’m here.

“I know people have had worse childhoods. It’s not like we grew up under a bridge, but we never got anything new. We always got giveaway clothes from the church. And my dad, I remember he went to only two baseball games and one football game the whole time I was playing sports. My three brothers and I never got much direction. We never got any real guidance in life. I don’t want my kids to go through that. I want to have the money and the time for them.

“It’s been a test sometimes. But seeing my two little girls smile, that’s the best part. That’s what motivates me. I hate when they’re sad. That’s tougher than all of this. They’re so emotional. There’s so much estrogen around. Maybe I need to get a boy dog or something.”

— Patrick Burgess, 26

Related:

• Army Reserve experience not what he anticipated

The post Young daughters provide motivation for dad appeared first on The Baytown Project.