Vosicky: A father's message to his son

When I decided to get out of the military after nine years, many of my colleagues thought I was crazy -- and for good reason.

In a constantly fluctuating economy, I had a stable career making decent money with full health benefits. On top of that, I was halfway to a retirement sometime in my early 40s.

Why throw all of that away for a college degree and the uncertainty of civilian life?

The short answer is I did it for my son, Rowen. I'd always stressed the importance of an education to him, so the very least I could do was practice what I preached about having a college degree.

Not that there's anything wrong with a "military education." But it's not quite the same.

In the Marines, you learn things on a need-to-know basis.

Marines do one thing extremely well -- win wars.

The rigorous training regiment teaches them how to operate under the most stressful conditions -- a skill that undoubtedly comes in handy during final exams week.

But there are gaps in that kind of education.

Marine training doesn't require extensive knowledge of English literature, science, or math.

And that kind of knowledge doesn't come easily.

I struggled a bit when I started taking classes at the University of South Carolina Beaufort in the fall of 2013. I found myself in a new world. I went from getting "As" in high school honors courses to barely passing some of my college-level math classes.

Luckily I'm a psychology major, so passing was all that I needed. While I certainly don't enjoy earning "passing" grades, I appreciate the fact that the journey was not always an easy one.

But diplomas aren't supposed to be easy.

Now that I'm halfway through my senior year, I can look forward and see the finish line.

I can also look back at all of the things I learned, not only in the classroom but about myself.

Sure, such lessons are valuable to the one learning them, but they're even more valuable in terms of using them to teach to future generations.

Like Rowen.

He, and thousands of kids like him, are the one's who will carry on our legacy.

He'll know the importance of hard work and that, as cliched as it sounds, anything worth having is worth fighting for.

Those are lessons I want him to learn from a Marine, a student -- and his dad.

Brian Vosicky is a Marine Corps veteran who served in the Middle East, Europe and Africa. He is studying psychology at the University of South Carolina Beaufort.

This story was originally published December 8, 2015 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Vosicky: A father's message to his son."