Inner Strength: A Veteran’s Perspective of “Embracing The Suck”

When I was in the Army I was introduced to many words and phrases that were commonly used within military ranks but not very common in civilian life. Most civilians would probably consider them vulgar at worst and off-putting at best, but to those of us in the military, they are terms of endearment. The topic of this writing revolves around one of those phrases. This particular phrase was born from times of hardship of which we had many.

From the very beginning of my time in the military I had struggles. One such example was my physical capability. I was not the most in-shape or “squared away” soldier in Basic but I was far from the least capable as well. During my time, and pretty much until recently, the way the army measured physical fitness was through three events that included the push-up, the sit-up and the 2 mile run. When I first arrived at Basic Training I could barely do 10 pushups, 20 sit-ups and my 2- mile time was like 24 minutes. Absolutely horrible, even by my own standard.

Now that you have some background context I can now tell you about the absolute shit show the next 9 weeks was all about. But before I move on I must confess I ENJOYED my time in Basic Training because I embodied the particular phrase this writing is about. Over the next weeks our lives were completely controlled by the drill sergeants. They looked for ways to justify “punishing” us, such as finding a speck of lint in the piping behind the clothes dryers or improperly measured rolled underwear or t-shirts. If anything was out of order they would “smoke” us for hours. A smoking comprised of various bodyweight exercises that would take our muscles to exhaustion well before the smoking session would complete. We would be awake, and doing something, from 4:30 in the morning until 10 or 11 at night. Our meals were monitored and we were punished if we so much as looked at a dessert in the chow line, at least during the first phase of training. Life as I knew it to that point SUCKED, and that is when I was first introduced to the phrase Embrace the Suck. 

I learned that not only was this “suckiness” making me better but if I embraced it I could start to enjoy it, start having fun and excel. That is exactly what I did and by the end of Basic I was maxing out my pushups and sit-ups and I was running the 2 mile in less than 14 minutes. Not only was I more physically capable but I was more confident and accomplished as well. I became a leader within my platoon and helped others achieve things they didn’t think they could. I helped our platoon become one of the most disciplined in the battery. 

Throughout the rest of my career in the Army and well after I got out, there have been challenges, obstacles and hardships that have tested my resolve and my character. Through it all I knew I would be ok. I knew that these challenges would make me better, think better, DO better. I knew this because I learned a long time ago to Embrace the Suck. 

I am a firm believer that no challenge ever presents itself that we cannot handle in the moment. It may be hard, it may seem impossible, but the resources are always there to handle it even if that resource is the knowledge that this particular challenge or hardship is an opportunity to learn from failure. Just like the muscle failure my drill sergeants put me through made me physically stronger, intellectual or emotional failure will make you wiser and more emotionally capable. Once you realize that your struggle, your trauma, your SUCK is what has made you who you are, what has developed your values and morality, you will be free and even encouraged to keep going and take on more and bigger challenges. The fear will melt away and you may even begin to get excited about what lies ahead. 

My final thoughts regard our society as a whole and how we can impact the generations that follow. Struggle is an important part of life. As I mentioned before, it is how we learn who we are and of what we are truly capable. Struggle can be truly traumatic and, in most cases, not enjoyable. Because of this we have a natural tendency to shelter those that came after us, like our children, students, or junior soldiers, from the struggles we endured. This tendency has morphed, at least in the case of our children, to protecting them from ALL struggle. This tendency has led to a weak minded and vastly underprepared generation of young adults. The struggles they are enduring now seem exceptionally overwhelming leading to outcomes like increased mental instability, intellectual decline, lack of innovation and general feelings of “why bother”.

Why would we not give our children the same opportunities to grow as we got in our youth. I know that seeing our children suffer is probably the hardest thing to witness and endure, but it is something we must do to ensure they have the skills, experience and wisdom to prepare their own children generations down the line. In the meantime I think we can turn the tables and get this generation, as well as the younger generations, to become mentally strong, innovative and excited for the future. But we have to introduce struggle back into life, and guidance through the hardship. We need to Embrace the Suck.