Experience shapes earning respect. Professional and personal experiences are combined from real and true accounts of a person’s life. While experience sets people in motion, positive or negative motion, the reaction to experience is a choice made by each individual. These timelines are representative of events that are true, accurate, can be proven and don’t always follow the same timeline as others on a similar path. Everyone knows what they say about the assumptions of others. Assumptions are often made that experience is acquired by doing small parts of a whole and not actually completing an experience through full completion, certification, and or final stages to a graduation.

An example: a person should not impersonate a military member in any military service because they idolize military history. “Stolen Valor ” is a crime, and against the law, as is impersonating a military member or officer. The art of storytelling can be one of the most powerful and subjective shared story opportunities in all of time and comes from a perspective that is solidified through real life experiences that can be found relatable to the audience.

Respect is earned in the truest of experiences. Those who experience the triumph of the greatest of milestones, becoming a US Marine, climbing Mount Everest, can always sniff out those who have not. There is zero respect given for those who preach experience they have no idea about or truth to teach and or preach, regardless of generational considerations. Respect is always earned, never given, and must be from a place of experience and status of whole and complete achievement versus a never was or a never has been. Some run, some hide, some lie, some fear. Experience, respect, and truth always prevail.

Kassie Diaz is a USMC Veteran with over 23 years of experience supporting the DoD. She holds multiple degrees and is currently pursuing her PhD in Philosophy, Industrial & Organizational Psychology.