Kick their ass, take their gas

That was the slogan on the t-shirt that shifted my worldview.

I was probably 24 years old, five years into a military career that would run 20 years and 7 days. I had ordered a bunch of “funny” t-shirts that arrived, from “Nuke the Moon” to “Kick their ass, take their gas”.

I brought them home and put on the titled shirt. I looked up at myself in the mirror and something hit me in that moment. I looked at the slogan, looked into my own eyes and thought, “Do I really believe this?”

“Do I really think this?”

“Is this who I really am?”

“Would I really advocate this position?”

It wasn’t and isn’t.

I never wore the shirt though I have kept it in my closet for the last two decades years as a reminder.