i grew up in bangkok thailand and moved to the united states with my mom at the age of 14. i went to high school in louisiana and then joined the marine corps my dad was in the u.s navy and so is my husband what i've learned through both of them is to you know serve a purpose greater than yourself everyone in the military no matter what your role is is sacrificing something the second week of boot camp i got hospitalized for having pneumonia so i thought to myself wow this is a lot harder than i thought and i don't know if i'm gonna make it to the end one thing that i learned from my mom is that to never quit so i stuck with it and try to do my best every single day i was the voice of the aircraft the c-130s i would basically be the guy who would coordinate communication between the ground and the airplane the challenges i faced when i was coming out of the military was i wasn't sure what to do with my life after the service i went to stanford university in northern california due to the pandemic i had to leave stanford campus to go home and stay with my mom my siblings and her ex-husband at the time she was experiencing domestic violence so we decided to run away and go seek help at a domestic violence shelter i had to go work part-time at chipotle to support my family i think it's really important to recruit veterans into the workplace i think veterans can be misunderstood in what they bring to the table i think a resume doesn't really do justice what leadership qualities veterans and active duty military members have i think the number one thing for me i would like everyone to know is veterans are not a monolith just because we're a vet doesn't mean all of us think the same for us coming into this workplace it's definitely a bit different from what we're used to so i just highly ask that people try to be patient with us treat us like everybody else a veteran community in the workplace is really hard to find so it feels good to be able to connect with people in the veterans belonging group who have had similar experiences to me or my husband i am part of the sc academy veterans group i am very thankful for this opportunity for giving me the chance to get started with my career now i'm able to support my family and we are doing much better now i guess my last words for all the vets out there is with all due respect thank you for your service