Master Trainer - Self Mastery

I have been such a slacker...well that's not true I have been insanely busy. I spent all of last week in Florida at the Army Community Service Master Trainer Course...whew..that's long to type. It's a "train-the-trainer" course as we call them in Army land (and perhaps other Military branches but I only know what the Army does, haha). Basically I learned how to instruct other instructors. I've actually been doing that for a while now but as anyone in the Military knows...things change daily! So I spent a week in Florida and I had a good time. To be honest my favorite part was seeing friends from duty stations past! It was like a little reunion for me, I really enjoyed that part. Oh, and how awesome is it that the Army pays to send their volunteers for training, I think that's pretty darn awesome!

The class instruction was good too, but a lot of the stuff I already knew since I've been doing this for over a decade. That doesn't mean I didn't learn new tips or anything. Plus this new program is pretty confusing to some and that was obviously expressed by some of the people there. They made the whole process a bit more complicated by not listening to the intent of the class.

Overall I had fun, I met some great people, reconnected with great people and got to stay in a pretty nice hotel room. I really did miss my family though and was ready to come home.

One of the highlights of my time in Florida was seeing a friend we knew at Fort Knox. He was actually a missionary for our church when we met him years ago. He now lives in Orlando and I got to have dinner with him and his awesome family. It was the first time I had met his wife and beautiful kids. I LOVE them, but then I knew I would since I love him so much.

We had a lot of good laughs in FL, and I behaved for the most part. I definitely had some personal growth that I am grateful for. I appreciate the moments of humility where I am forced to take a step back and self-evaluate. I'm am flawed and I know this. I try hard to do the right thing by people and I read statement a few years back that mentioned charity not always being a visible action but often times can be not saying things you think should be said. I try to practice that and fail often. This trip to Florida was a struggle for me since there were a lot of different personalities there and lots of close-minded people. I can handle diversity, I cannot handle people who think one way and only one way...their way. I feel blessed for the opportunity I had to meet people from all walks of life and experience. And while I might not have agreed with all of their thoughts and ideas, I appreciate the insight I received.

So, this trip to Florida was a trip of personal growth and self-evaluation. So maybe I learned something after all, a bit of self-mastery perhaps.