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From Pain to Purpose - Eva_s take on performance and pain · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

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Find us on the web at MB Radio. Dot.
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US. Welcome to the propane to.
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Purpose radio show. I'm your host, Viva Fulton.
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In this show, we explore the incredible journeys of
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resilience, healing and transformation.
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In each. Episode we will sit down with
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individuals good face unimaginable struggles and turn
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their pain into power, heartbreak into hope and their
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challenges into meaningful change and finding new purpose
1:50
in life. Through candid conversations and
1:53
inspiring stories, we will uncover how pain, whether
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emotional, physical, mental or spiritual.
2:00
Can be the. Catalyst for profound growth and
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a deeper sense of purpose. So if you are looking for
2:06
motivation, insight and real stories of triumph over
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adversity. If you're in the right place,
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let's get. Started on this journey from
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pain to purpose. Let's give veterans a voice
2:17
through military broadcast talk. So my answer to going to college
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was join the army. 1992 my life changed forever.
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PCs to Germany with with my two boys and really try to take
2:42
advantage of the opportunity to travel learn another language.
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The culture it was it was to me the dream coming true that
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everything that I've been going through was worth it because I
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was seeing another part of the world that I wouldn't have had
3:01
the opportunity if I hadn't been in the military.
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Planned on getting out in 2000 and that was really kind of a
3:09
part of a joy in my life and getting married for the second
3:13
time and I looked forward to the future ended up kind of becoming
3:20
disillusioned and that was the whole housing bubble thing where
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the mortgage jumped from bank to bank to bank.
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My kids were counting on me to to take care of them, to ask for
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that kind of help done to help other women is make sure that
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they know what their resources are.
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It it's for a long time I didn't understand that my service in
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the military counted as a woman veteran, but nobody told me,
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hey, Eva, you're a veteran too until I had that light bulb
4:00
moment and said my service counted too.
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And I can tell you it's been a long road to learn how to dream
4:11
again. The community was the solution,
4:14
be it churches, be it nonprofits, be it veterans
4:17
service organizations or just people like myself.
4:21
We are the resources. We are the solution to help
4:25
keeping women off of the street our women veterans housed and
4:32
having the resources they need and not living in a car city of
4:36
the work that grows us as leaders for our second service
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after the military to serve other people in our communities.
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Hello everybody, welcome to the from pain to purpose radio show.
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Today is Saturday. I have to look at the corner up
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there. Saturday, July 18th, the year of
5:03
our Lord 2026. It's funny how this summer is
5:07
just flying by and you know, you kind of have to remember all
5:11
right, what day is it again? You know, this the summer has
5:15
been pretty busy for me so far. I made the move from Maryland
5:22
back to my home in Texas. And you know, I, I didn't even,
5:28
I was only here for a couple weeks and then was gone for a
5:31
couple weeks and I've been back for a week, almost a week
5:35
tomorrow. So, oh man, the summer is flying
5:39
by so fast. And you know, I don't normally
5:44
play both of my intro videos back-to-back like that, but I
5:50
promise you that I do have a reason for doing so.
5:55
And that that is because, you know, I'm going to talk about
6:02
some of my takeaways from the Golden Age games, but we're also
6:07
heading into next weekend. The the, there is a women
6:13
veterans conference in San Antonio that I will be attending
6:18
Friday and Saturday. So I'm adjusting my work
6:22
schedule. This next.
6:23
Week and will be off Friday so to be able to attend the
6:28
conference and I will bring bringing hopefully some Flyers
6:33
for my. Study to share, hopefully.
6:35
I can get some participants and I haven't even really done much
6:40
on that front the past the past six weeks.
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This, you know, since I launched the study, I've, I've just been
6:48
moving, moving, moving on the go on the go.
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And I also wanted to make sure, you know, I there is a pain to
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purpose story and and many of us have pain to purpose stories.
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I think we don't always get very good about talking about
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ourselves. Oops.
7:10
I'm getting some feedback or something.
7:12
Metal switch on my sound sound cord sound.
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Soundboard. Hopefully that's better now.
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So we don't always, we are not very good about talking about
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ourselves and the pain we're experiencing and reaching out
7:27
for help. It is something that I mentioned
7:30
in my documentary, so that the second trailer I played is
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actually part of my documentary From Pain to Purpose, her second
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service story. And that was my learning how to
7:45
have my voice. It was in a very different way.
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You know, you have to kind of, I'm going to say you have to get
7:51
over yourself to be able to do some things like that, to do
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things like this. And it's and it's difficult, I'm
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going to say, you know, you have to get comfortable within your
8:04
skin to be able to have some conversations that can convey
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the pain that you've experienced, not so much as in a
8:14
victim side of things, but you know, for it to relate to people
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so they can realize that, hey, they are not the only ones that
8:24
are going through pain. One of the very there were so I
8:30
attended 2 events back-to-back. So one was the Golden Age games
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in Tampa and had a fabulous time.
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I'm going to cover more about it in a moment, but then the second
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week of my vacation was up in Maryland teaching a podcast
8:49
class called Where's My Mic? It was a kind of like really a
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week long workshop, but it was a podcast class, how to find your
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voice. It was really kind of a meant
9:00
we, Jose and I designed it to be a metaphor for finding your
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voice. And because there's a natural
9:10
inclination, I think for many of us veterans, not just female
9:15
veterans, but veterans by and large, that we tend to shrink
9:20
ourselves. We tend to, you know, kind of
9:26
hold back our voice. And, you know, a lot of people
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are finding their voice on social media.
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Some are utilizing it well. Some are not utilizing it so
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well. I, I saw that there was a, you
9:45
know, a Marine who was running for Congress.
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I think it's what he was running for, wore his uniform and went
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on a 7 minute rant. And you know, he got arrested
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yesterday and that's pretty sad. I think it was yesterday or if
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it was this morning. But you know, that's pretty sad
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that you know, I'm happy that people find their voices.
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But be careful how you use it because it is going to stay out
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there and you can't just easily take it away.
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So be careful what you say, but I bring out the these two events
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that I attended because it was kind of neat.
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You know, I designed my show based upon 4 pillars of pain.
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I I say pillars, but I always in in my mind, I think of this
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wooden chair and you know, each chair leg represents pain
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physical. Mental, emotional and spiritual
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so. The, the, the, then the, then
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how do I say it? The then secretary Under
10:57
Secretary. It's what he was the then
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secretary Under Secretary for, for VA that was doing the
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opening ceremony at the VA Golden Age Games.
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Mentioned all, all but the emotional pain.
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He did not mention emotional pain.
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So I, you know, it's kind of some neat confirmation, hearing
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somebody talk publicly. And he had mentioned the
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physical, the mental and the spiritual pain, didn't mention
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the emotional. But then I got to attend a class
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on the second week. I was in this acupressure class
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all week long. So kind of learning some Eastern
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medicine stuff. Really enjoyed it.
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Figured out some different places to work on headaches and
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back aches and tummy aches and all kinds of other things.
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But that that partitioner actually used all four of this,
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of the pain, you know, types of pain that I talk about on my
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show. And I didn't ever do any
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research about what these different pain types were.
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This was just something that I think God brought to me to talk
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about on the show. And you know, the guests that I
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have what, what type of pain have they experienced?
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But I wanted to also, you know, talk about my own personal
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takeaways and what that looks like moving forward to me,
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because, you know, I had Ava appointment yesterday and been
12:43
to the doctor a few times in the last, you know, several weeks.
12:48
And so this, this thing on my leg is not quite getting any
12:52
better. But I had to go on a new round
12:55
of antibiotics and making sure that, you know, I stay healthy
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because I have, I have places to go, people to see and things to
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do. So maintaining health is really
13:06
important to me. And I even put on some neem
13:10
salve on on my leg and alternate it with this one's Sovereign
13:16
Silver. So I put those I I try I've got
13:20
to get better at it, but I alternate using those and I have
13:24
some Ivermectin in there I'm going to try.
13:27
Maybe at night and see. If that will help a little pea
13:30
size, I haven't tried that. But I will try it.
13:33
Apparently it works on a lot of great things, so I have been
13:36
doing some research on what some of those healing modalities are
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that is going to help my leg get better, 'cause yeah, I don't, I
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don't want to. I don't want to lose a leg,
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right? I don't want to lose a foot.
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That's the. Part that I think is scaring me
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the most. So at least I saw so far on
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X-ray, they, the V actually read the X-rays already and it
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doesn't appear that I have a screw loose.
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I know that's a figurative. Somebody had said that, oh, you
14:14
got a screw loose. We can all laugh at that.
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It's OK. So apparently I don't have a
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screw loose. There is some debris in the knee
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and I'm not sure if that's what's causing some of this
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weird pressure. So I can't kneel on my knee
14:35
anymore. So it's my left knee that's
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bothering the the most. It's not affecting me walking,
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but it is affecting on the kneeling.
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And I, you know, I'm, I, part of me is just concerned that it is
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going to catch whatever that debris is.
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If it's going to catch in there, I don't want to fall because I
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know that I'm a fall risk. I've been told I'm a fall risk
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by some doctors. So yes, I know I'm a hiker.
15:06
Yes, I know a lot. I do a lot of things.
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My primary care yesterday she was like, so how did you even
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participate in the games? Then I was like, I don't know,
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give it to God. I just, I just give it to God
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and you know, she was quite impressed and she was asking me
15:29
how much I, what was my Max? That I lifted on the.
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Deadlift. It was 154 lbs.
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So I beat my own personal record on the lift and it was 70.
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I forget what it was close to 70 on the bench press.
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I in my upper body strength is just not as good as what my leg
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and probably back strength is. Just because you know, I do all
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the hiking doesn't mean that I am, you know, lifting and doing
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all that stuff. So you don't need to do some
16:04
more PEC work and arms and all that kind of stuff.
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But that's always been one of my weak areas.
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I bring that part up because I have three things that I've been
16:19
that it's been mulling around. You know, I drove from here to
16:24
Tampa, from Tampa to Maryland, from Maryland back home, and I
16:30
had time on my hands. Didn't always just pay attention
16:34
to what was on my I listen to shows I listen to Netflix while
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I drive I don't watch it but I listen to it imagine it but my
16:43
brain was still turning while I was driving so I had three
16:46
things that I came up with to talk about on both the VA golden
16:53
age games and the X you know and what happened even like the
16:59
second week on us teaching class so.
17:04
I had three words. Expectations, preparation and
17:09
execution. So expectations, I hadn't ever,
17:15
you know guys, I admitted that I have never considered myself an
17:21
athlete. So my expectations on my
17:24
personal performance were only based upon what I did with my
17:32
own self-discipline and what I was able to do with my own.
17:39
Abilities I don't necessarily. Like using the word
17:41
disabilities, but my own abilities.
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My expectations were just based upon what Eva thinks that Eva
17:51
can do, based upon how much I practiced.
17:57
So, you know, I had five sports I was planning on participating
18:01
in. Only one of them I didn't do it.
18:03
All. That was the power walking.
18:06
Not because I couldn't power walk, but the scheduling for
18:10
archery when the VA Golden Games was actually happening.
18:15
The heat index was creating some scheduling issues.
18:21
And because I purchased all this equipment and, you know, I, I
18:24
purchased the bow and the arrows and all of the other assorted
18:30
accessories to, you know, to be an Archer, I was not going to
18:37
pass up archery. I was going to make sure that I
18:42
did it. And you know, so Dad and I had
18:48
gone in April and that was actually, we had to drive to
18:53
Delaware, to the Cabela's up there.
18:56
And so I've, I've had my bow since April, but I didn't get
19:01
any practice time until I got here to Texas.
19:05
When I, when I came back originally, the beginning of
19:12
June to think about what was my schedule like, I didn't, you
19:17
know, time flies right when we're having fun.
19:21
I've been. Yeah, that would have been at
19:24
the very beginning of June, right after.
19:26
That was. Labor Day, Sorry, Memorial Day
19:29
weekend. It was when I drove back.
19:30
So anyways, that following week is when I got arrows and found a
19:37
place to go practice. So I'd only gotten a few rounds
19:43
of going and getting some practice in with with bow and
19:49
arrows at the AT. There's a apparently there's a
19:53
really great archery place not far from my home and there are a
20:00
lot of competitions there. So I'm very, very fortunate that
20:04
I'm not located very far away from a great place to practice
20:08
archery both indoors and outdoors.
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But I haven't gotten to do the outdoor part yet because it was
20:14
too rainy and muddy out there, which was unfortunate.
20:19
Because the competition for archery is supposed to be the
20:24
2030 and 40 yards and at the VA Golden Age games because he was
20:33
a issue we they had narrowed it down to just doing the 20 and 30
20:39
yards. But I messed up when I was when
20:43
it was my turn on the 30 yard ends.
20:49
I looked at the wrong pin, call it nerves, whatever is my first
20:53
archery competition and looked at the wrong pin.
20:56
But I did great on the 20 yards. I came in second place.
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I got silver and archery with. I say really not a lot of
21:06
practice, but I. Really do like the sport.
21:09
I made 2 upgrades to the bow that I got at Cabela's and one
21:16
was to the flip up arrowrest. And the day before I drove to
21:24
Tampa I had ordered from Amazon a 12 inch, you know, stabilizer
21:31
and that made a huge difference. That stabiler, that's that bar
21:36
made a huge difference in my performance.
21:40
And I, I don't, I don't think it was so much of the anxiety of
21:45
firing. It was just just that it was a
21:49
new process and event. So you know I.
21:52
Tried to stick with all of the process steps when I was firing,
21:57
but my expectations, I didn't know what anybody else had done.
22:02
You know the other Archers, some of them came with BAU issued
22:07
equipment, both with long bows and a simple compound bow.
22:14
I, I say simple because their compound bows didn't have as
22:18
many of the gear functions that mine did.
22:22
So, and I'm not an expert on bows by any means, I just know
22:26
what I got. You know, it's a can't.
22:28
Mine's camouflage. So it's all.
22:31
It's all in. There and in a.
22:33
Bag, I keep it all, you know, tight and everything in a bag,
22:38
you know, I keep it all together.
22:39
Got my arrows and and so now I I'm kind of excited about doing
22:47
archery, you know, both from the hunting side of things and going
22:51
out to do more competitions. I enjoyed it, you know, and why
22:58
there is a why, right, Because if my knees or legs don't want
23:03
to cooperate and I'm having to, you know, I'm already having to
23:07
figure out what sports do I want to do in the golden age games
23:11
next year because yes, I'm going to do it again.
23:15
I'm I'm narrowing down what I want to focus on because I was
23:20
trying to go for five different sports.
23:22
Well, that's that's a lot. You know, when you're trying to
23:26
go for that many sports. I didn't even really think about
23:28
it, but I just kind of like, all right, let's let's try 5 and see
23:31
what sticks. Well, now I know one of the
23:34
sports that I did was bowling. Yes, I enjoy bowling, but
23:39
because of some of my prior injuries, both with knee and
23:43
back and, you know, my hand was kind of being wonky that day, my
23:47
wrist. I enjoy bowling for fun.
23:52
I enjoy bowling. Maybe, you know, and I've been
23:58
on a bowling league before, but there's not like super close
24:02
bowling alleys where I could probably go and do it a league
24:06
again. I enjoyed the bowling league
24:08
when I was active duty. Haven't done a league since I
24:12
was active duty. So it's been a minute.
24:15
But then my back, it does not really like bowling.
24:20
So I'm going to take bowling off of my competition list.
24:25
And and so my expectations were for for archery so far was I'm
24:36
giving it a try. You know, I give it a try.
24:39
I bought the equipment. Yes.
24:41
You know, I think as a, you know, from a very fundamental
24:46
view of OK, survivor side of things, you don't have to buy
24:52
more bullets. You know, when things, when the
24:55
shit hits the fan, I can, I can, I can.
24:59
I can kill something with a bow and arrow.
25:02
I can kill something. Don't worry, my shot group's
25:06
good enough. I can kill something.
25:07
Don't worry about it. That that's a very doable thing
25:12
for me. So my expectations were that I
25:15
would do OK, but I didn't know how I was going to place.
25:18
I didn't know what the competition was like on archery
25:22
when I went. But I think now that I know what
25:26
I did wrong and not looking at the right pin, I can do better
25:32
and I will be ready for the 2030 and the 40 yards in Cleveland
25:37
next year. You can count on that for sure.
25:41
My expectations. I met my expectations and I have
25:46
higher expectations for myself in the future.
25:50
So the preparation for archery. I could have, should have, would
25:55
have done better, but given all that I was going through with
26:00
work and commute and everything else, I did fine.
26:07
I'm not. I'm not gigging myself on the
26:11
preparation and then the execution.
26:14
I know what I did wrong, know what I can do better.
26:18
I got in as much practice as I could.
26:21
I had, I was very fortunate to with the range that I was going
26:26
to and the guy at Cabela's who's a veteran.
26:29
I had three people but all three men were very kind and
26:37
supporting me and and gave me hints to help fine tune some of
26:44
my equipment, gave me recommendations and they gave me
26:49
way more confidence than what I, you know, probably had.
26:53
I have have had minimal experience with archery before
26:57
active duty and after I got out 'cause I actually have to have,
27:02
you know, we got a simple Longbow that I've had for the
27:06
kids and a target. So it's not like I didn't know
27:09
anything. I just didn't know anything
27:11
about the really using the compound bow quick adjustment
27:16
and I think I did pretty good there.
27:19
The longer expectation and preparation that I took for was
27:26
the powerlifting. So my motivator for powerlifting
27:30
is my daughter Carrie. Carrie, And if y'all don't know
27:35
my daughter, she's now 22, but in high school she was a power
27:40
lifter and she went to state in Texas.
27:43
She went to state. I drove her and that was so
27:46
exciting to see that you know, if and I just was like, man, if
27:51
my daughter can do it, I can do it.
27:53
Even with my injuries, I'm competing against me.
27:57
And so that was the one sport that I started out back in like
28:03
January. It's not like I've been born to
28:06
the gym. I've had a membership, but I
28:08
think it focused me. It gave me focus on how to train
28:14
and you know, I didn't ever. But fortunately with the
28:19
powerlifting, with the VA Golden Age Games, it was just the
28:23
deadlift and the bench press, no squats.
28:29
So I didn't have to worry about the squat side that took that
28:33
off of the table. I practice the deadlift and I, I
28:37
would, you know, increase my weight.
28:39
I would do 3 or 4 reps and make sure that I could do it.
28:43
Knew what light my limits were both with my knee and my back.
28:47
My cousin is a power lifter up in Oklahoma.
28:51
He's, you know, been, he's, he still does competitions up
28:56
there. So I was able to message with
28:58
him, told me some things, stick your butt out, stuff like that.
29:04
And that I think you, you know, I watched some videos, I read
29:10
the rules to make sure I knew what to do.
29:14
And I had no scratches on any of my lips.
29:19
I knew what my baseline weight was for, you know, for
29:24
execution. So then I actually exceeded my
29:30
expectations in execution because I had the month and a
29:38
half before even going to Tampa. I was nursing a strain back.
29:45
So I have as part of my disabilities why I even got out
29:49
of the military in the 1st place, which is why I played my
29:52
video was the trailer was, you know, I had that car wreck way
29:58
back when on my birthday. That was 1992.
30:03
I have been dealing with all of these plethora of physical
30:09
ailments which kind of turn into some mental and emotional
30:14
elements in a way, because these things just don't ever heal
30:20
right. It's just this constant reminder
30:22
the pain is there. I was nursing the pain, couldn't
30:26
quite get it to pop in the right place.
30:30
Went to the chiropractor a couple of times and, you know,
30:35
tried getting massages, tried lidocaine patches, you know, it,
30:44
it's it, it just, I couldn't ever get it to relax enough so
30:50
it would go in the right place. Fortunately, the week before I
30:56
drove to Tampa, I did that one last visit to the chiropractor.
31:02
He got it in a little bit better place, especially my neck side.
31:06
I think the neck, that taking out that neck tension helped a
31:09
whole bunch, but then that helped relieve some of the rest
31:14
of the tension that I was having in my back.
31:18
So preparation. I started the preparation on the
31:23
powerlifting way early and I it was so my back going out.
31:28
I that back can go out. Just getting out of bed, getting
31:31
up out of chair, sneezing wrong, whatever, it'll just go out.
31:34
I don't there is no rhyme or reason what causes it to go out.
31:38
But it didn't start until after the car wrecked back in 92.
31:43
That whole T89 area is the worst.
31:45
But anyways, they haven't ever been able to do anything for
31:49
that. So execution wise, I exceeded my
31:53
execution expectations and I had a great, you know man, the the
32:01
crowd there was just so supportive at all of these
32:05
events. The crowd was so supportive that
32:09
you know that adrenaline at oh, I'm going to remind the my
32:13
everybody. Hey, part of my preparation was
32:16
I found out about creatine. Why do women we, I swear, you
32:20
know, my kids, the boys have talked about creatine, but this
32:24
is a little best kept secret that we women don't really get
32:28
the education on the creatine side of things.
32:30
So I drank my creatine before I did all of these events, and I
32:36
swear, I think that that had something to do with my
32:40
performance because execution was was really, really good.
32:45
Let's see. So I talked about the bowling.
32:49
Yeah, not so good. I didn't practice.
32:52
I you know, I didn't. Have my own ball.
32:54
I had my own shoes and that's because I don't like, you know,
32:59
wearing somebody else's funky shoes.
33:02
So at least had my own shoes, but don't have my own ball.
33:06
So I, that was just a fun thing, right?
33:10
Didn't have very high expectations on that one at all,
33:15
though. My highest ever score is 299.
33:18
The kid, my kids actually saw that before I broke my back in
33:23
2022. So they know I used to be a
33:26
really good bowler. But yeah, not so much anymore
33:30
then golf. So you know, to golf you do have
33:35
to have the game score, you have to have an official handicap.
33:39
So that took my, you know, getting some practice in so and
33:45
you know, I played three games, did them at a really nice golf
33:50
course up there by my dad near Near Easton, MD.
33:56
Great course. I highly recommend it if y'all
33:59
are ever up in that area, it's hog hog hog something.
34:03
Anyways, PM me I'll tell you what it is.
34:07
That was a nice golf course to really get some practice in the
34:12
I mean there were some water hazards for sure, but you know,
34:15
you don't get that mind thing when there's the water hazard.
34:18
So I didn't get in my head so much, but at least since then my
34:26
handicap has actually dropped. So I.
34:28
Started out at a 30. 2 for the games and now I'm down to 25
34:35
already. So I have, I have hope for that,
34:38
that I just have to keep practicing and getting better.
34:43
So golf has always been one of those sports that I've really,
34:47
really enjoyed the week before the game.
34:50
So I went and bought a brand new set of clubs that I had not ever
34:57
practiced with. So my expectations on equipment
35:05
was kind of 5050. I expected that I would play
35:09
better because they were graphite, but they weren't, you
35:14
know, folks. I looked at my, I looked at my
35:17
clubs and I was like, OK, you're taking these and they belong in
35:24
a garage sale or something. They're great for practice, but
35:27
not for playing a game. So I, you know, they were, you
35:32
know, a steel set. So it way too heavy for me, way,
35:40
way, way too heavy for me. So my expectations equipment
35:44
wise on playing golf was that I was going to play better even
35:49
though I hadn't practiced with that particular set at all.
35:53
So preparation probably was not so great on the golf side of
36:00
things, but execution was good because I brought home the gold
36:07
in golf, tied for gold in the Gulf and got the silver and
36:12
archery got the 4th. Place I got.
36:14
To find my ribbon because you can see this is my bib and I got
36:19
the 4th place in powerlifting and as far as the powerlifting
36:24
man for you ladies who do that more my hat's off to y'all for
36:30
staying in there and they were they were hitting their personal
36:35
best as well tell you the crowd is what really makes the
36:38
difference and being able to execute.
36:42
But there were a couple ladies who injured themselves.
36:45
They tore like a rotator cuff or something.
36:47
So you know, it's I there. But there were a couple of other
36:55
sports that I would really like to do, you know.
36:58
So I'm going to make a little transition.
37:00
What am I going to do for the future?
37:04
So I'm definitely going to stick with the archery, definitely
37:07
going to stick with the golf. Now apparently I and I haven't
37:11
gotten the notification for it, but apparently we qualify for
37:15
the Senior Games next year. So you know, man, that's tough.
37:22
It's a tough, you know, I've only got so much leave I can
37:25
take, you know, strategy wise, do I strategize to play for the
37:32
golden age games again or, you know, practice hard enough and
37:36
play for the senior game? So that's where my my mind is
37:41
at. I'm only ever playing.
37:44
I say this now, and I said this even before I left, and is some
37:50
I play for me, I enjoy it. Eva's competitive against Eva.
37:56
I'm not competitive against other people, not in anything I
38:01
do. I don't care whether it's about
38:03
writing a book or a documentary or playing, you know, sports,
38:10
because I've not ever. Considered myself an athlete, I.
38:15
Do things because I enjoy doing it.
38:19
I'm not doing it to try to compete and one up somebody
38:23
else. I set my goal to do things.
38:27
These are my own personal dangling carrots that I I find
38:31
what is motivating me. And that's even what I was
38:35
telling my primary care doctor because I wanted the referral to
38:39
the adaptive sports and now. And after looking at her
38:42
computer screen, no wonder she was so confused before.
38:48
And I didn't get a referral to ambulatory care before the games
38:54
because I went there, a woman without a vision.
38:57
I had no support at all. This was I went with my own
39:01
personal motivation. I went on my own personal dime.
39:05
I went with my own plan on expectations, preparation and
39:11
execution because I wasn't dependent upon anybody else.
39:13
This was all my own personal motivation to do these things.
39:19
Why? Because there's this part of me
39:22
that celebrates the things that I can do versus the things that
39:27
I can't do. And I don't try to find things
39:29
that I can't do because I can't I'm I don't use the word can't
39:36
very often, but I can't ride a regular bicycle.
39:41
The y'all saw the car wreck and the in the trailer that I
39:46
played, I had three pelvic fractures as a part of that
39:52
wreck. And I have tried different gel
39:56
seats, I have tried different size seats.
40:01
Riding a regular bicycle is not something that I can do.
40:07
I've tried. I don't even ever do the bicycle
40:12
at the gym. Now that, and I know there's the
40:17
recumbent stationary bicycle, but I don't like riding the
40:21
bicycle and going nowhere either.
40:24
But now that I have seen the recumbent bicycle in motion, I
40:33
haven't ridden one. But I want to ride it and here's
40:38
why. My knees, you know, I don't know
40:43
how long the screws are going to perform or not perform.
40:47
So I got the three screws in my left knee back in 96.
40:55
And so it's 30 years ago, almost like this month.
41:00
I'm pretty sure I've had the screws in my left knee for 30
41:04
years. Unfortunately I did see the
41:08
X-ray report late last night because the VA already read
41:12
them. I don't have any screws backing
41:15
out but I have debris in there. Have some arthritis in the right
41:20
knee? Both knees are messed up.
41:25
I don't know how long I'm going to be able to hike and y'all
41:27
know that I love hiking on the Appalachian Trail.
41:31
Love hiking on the Camino. At least the Camino is not as
41:35
arduous as the you know. It's not as rough terrain as
41:40
what the Appalachian Trail is or some of the other trails I've
41:44
been on here in the state of Texas.
41:48
But the recumbent is an option. I like that idea.
41:53
I am very intrigued about what the recumbent could do for me
41:59
and my ability to move. I think it's going to be good
42:04
therapy for my knees as well. And you know, we'll see.
42:10
You know, it was kind of neat watching.
42:11
There was even a guy almost like flat.
42:14
He was riding flat and he was hand bike, He was hand pedaling
42:20
the whole way. And that guy was he was zooming
42:24
around the whole course in Tampa too, Man, I and and Jose and I,
42:30
man, we're like, man, can we be a commentator next year?
42:34
I'm throwing that out there. We could totally commentate and
42:38
and coming in for the awards for cornhole or, you know, we could
42:43
listen off. I could imagine it, Jose.
42:45
We would totally rocket doing this stuff.
42:48
So I'm just throwing a see, I'm throwing a bone out there.
42:52
VA. Maybe you guys will be
42:54
interested in having us out there, but that would be so
42:59
much, much fun to commentate and I have been watching, you know
43:03
the. Paralympics going on, Big
43:06
country. Has he's been a guest on my show
43:09
and he's prepping for, you know, his competition next year.
43:14
So, you know, if you guys are not on the bandwagon for getting
43:23
off of the couch, I don't know what to tell you.
43:27
You got to get out there and live because, you know, the
43:31
camaraderie that I saw in in Tampa was amazing.
43:38
I ran into my old charge, a major from Germany too.
43:41
That was pretty cool. I, I was, you know, before was
43:47
it I guess was March, April, they allowed you to submit in,
43:52
you know, your military picture or picture of you and, you know,
43:57
a little, you know, mini, mini bio.
44:00
And so I didn't know how they were going to put them up, but
44:03
they had they had these kind of, you know, PowerPoint slideshow
44:07
that was on the monitors downstairs.
44:11
And that was pretty cool. So I was writing down the
44:14
escalator and saw mine pop up on screen.
44:19
And I was like, oh, no. So I went over there and was
44:24
watching it, waiting for it to come up.
44:26
And there was this man and woman standing beside me.
44:29
But I heard him talk and I was like, that boy sounded familiar.
44:33
You know, I, I may not always remember names, but I remember
44:36
voices and faces. So I was like, excuse me, but
44:41
what he. Goes Terry Jackson.
44:46
So I was like, no way, no way, sorry.
44:50
It was so it was so cool. And then he he Facetimed by some
44:58
first class that was stationed over me and in Germany.
45:03
So that was pretty wild to you know, you don't know what you're
45:07
going to you have a reunion, these kind of events and then
45:12
the whole group of women that was there.
45:15
You know, it's part of the reason why I played the trailer
45:19
and a lot of the women that I have met through my travels,
45:23
especially here in the North Texas area, all these women, you
45:27
know, there's a whole lot of women, the highest population of
45:31
women competing at the VA golden age, Golden age games this year.
45:36
That was amazing it And even if you saw some of the pictures on
45:40
social media, there were still a whole bunch of them that weren't
45:44
there for the picture because they were actually competing or
45:48
they were eating dinner because when they.
45:51
Took it. It was like it was like 6.
45:52
O'clock or something. So you know, it wasn't great
45:56
time, but when do you take it? When you can get the most people
45:58
and the photographer there and everything else.
46:01
So anyways, it's, you know, it was really good.
46:07
And then this, you know, going into that second week was, was a
46:11
different kind of slide 'cause there was a presentation.
46:15
You know, Jose and I, we had, we had expectations of, you know,
46:23
being able to present this topic on, you know, where's my mic?
46:30
Not knowing. At least I didn't know that the
46:34
one of the participants in the class was actually planning on
46:38
setting up a podcast. So he had done a lot of
46:41
homework, but a lot of the information that we provided and
46:45
fed into him based upon our experiences working with
46:50
military broadcast radio. You know, we designed the class
46:54
that it was a metaphor. Find your mic.
46:58
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58:43
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