Understanding Memorial Day as a Non Veteran

It took me a lifetime to get a better understanding of Memorial Day. For most of my life, I had no idea.

It wasn’t until I experienced life more and went through some intense battles of my own to even comprehend what our fallen soldiers and veterans have done for us and our country. It takes a strong soul to put your life on the line so that many others can live theirs. They gave up their yesterdays for our tomorrow’s.

Over the last 6 months, I’ve had the honor of working with two Navy Chiefs, who are some of the realest people I’ve ever met. True leaders who have been through hell and are continuing to do great things. They have a strength and aura to them that I haven’t experienced before. They asked me to be a part of their team and it’s been one of the biggest blessings of my life. You don’t meet people like this everyday. It’s rare and I’m loving every minute of it.

They’ve told me some of their stories and it’s eye opening to hear first hand what they’ve accomplished, witnessed and also the incredible loss. I see that Memorial Day hits especially hard for them. Remembering those they served with who either didn’t come home or made it home to then face battles of the aftermath of service.

While I haven’t served and I’ll never fully understand, I have experienced my share of hell. I know that feeling of not knowing if you’re going to make it, yet you press on forward. This is where I matured into the man I am today and learned more of my authentic self. It took years of hard times to experience what sacrifice, pain and suffering actually feels like first hand. It’s through difficult experiences that I developed a great respect for those that have fought for our country.

This is also where Self-Care For Dudes was born, for veterans and men facing battles alike. Self-care taught me how to heal and in the process, I’ve been able to share comradery and common ground with many great veterans on our TikTok. We’ve learned how to be tough and that’s needed at times, but then a time comes where we learn how to self-care and heal.

Today we pay our respect to those that served us and didn’t come home. We remember you, we’re grateful for you and we honor you.

Thank you.

JR // Creator of Self-Care For Dudes