{"id":19,"date":"2013-11-28T04:58:15","date_gmt":"2013-11-28T04:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gordonsavage.wordpress.com\/?p=19"},"modified":"2013-11-28T04:58:15","modified_gmt":"2013-11-28T04:58:15","slug":"journal-of-an-underachiever-prelude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/uncategorized\/journal-of-an-underachiever-prelude\/","title":{"rendered":"Journal of an Underachiever \u2013 Prelude"},"content":{"rendered":"

So why the title?<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t that I can\u2019t accomplish what I set out to do. I\u2019m an underachiever because I\u2019ve always taken it easy. Up until now I\u2019ve settled for what came my way, and I\u2019ve had a pretty good life. But I\u2019ve never pushed to be extraordinary. Instead, I\u2019ve settled for mediocre. Today that changes. I\u2019m challenging myself to be extraordinary, and I\u2019m starting this blog as part of the challenge. I suppose that doesn\u2019t sound like much of a challenge. It might not be a challenge to you, but I\u2019ve already stalled out on two blogs. My goal is two-fold: to work on self-discipline by forcing myself to keeping the blog up to date and to put together a collection of my memories for my family \u2014 and anyone else who might be interested.<\/p>\n

I got the idea for this journal because of a couple of lunches I had with my classmates from the Air Force Academy. They gave talks about their careers and what they had accomplished. I realized as I listened that I\u2019ve done a lot of things that would be interesting to others, especially my family. My kids have all asked for their grandparents to write about their experiences, but none of them did, and now they\u2019re gone. That part of the family history is lost forever. I\u2019m writing this to salvage a little of mine.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been a bit of a wordsmith, and recently I decided to turn that talent into being a novelist. I completed and published my first book, Peacemaker \u2013 The Corona Rebellion 2564AD<\/i><\/a>. When I set up my webpage, I also set up this blog and quickly found that there wasn\u2019t enough time in the day to keep it up to date.<\/p>\n

Okay, take a look at that first paragraph again. In reality I don\u2019t have too much to do on an average day. I have enough time to keep a blog up to date.\u00a0 I just don\u2019t try hard enough. Keeping this journal current is the first step in changing from mediocre to extraordinary. I\u2019m using it to tell my story and to work on my self-discipline.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve lived in interesting times: World War II, the assassination of President Kennedy, the Cold War and its end. My life so far has been interesting \u2014 not as dramatic as many of my classmates\u2019 lives, but it has had its moments. And that\u2019s what I want to write about. This journal is going to be a hodgepodge, which I will try to keep in some kind of chronological order. Along the way I\u2019ll try to throw in some lessons I\u2019ve learned. If you find it interesting, spread the word. If you find it boring, tell me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So why the title? It isn\u2019t that I can\u2019t accomplish what I set out to do. I\u2019m an underachiever because I\u2019ve always taken it easy. Up until now I\u2019ve settled for what came my way, and I\u2019ve had a pretty good life. But I\u2019ve never pushed to be extraordinary. Instead, I\u2019ve settled for mediocre. Today […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nJournal of an Underachiever \u2013 Prelude - The Oath Still Stands<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/uncategorized\/journal-of-an-underachiever-prelude\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Journal of an Underachiever \u2013 Prelude - The Oath Still Stands\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So why the title? It isn\u2019t that I can\u2019t accomplish what I set out to do. I\u2019m an underachiever because I\u2019ve always taken it easy. Up until now I\u2019ve settled for what came my way, and I\u2019ve had a pretty good life. But I\u2019ve never pushed to be extraordinary. Instead, I\u2019ve settled for mediocre. 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It hasn\u2019t worked out. I admit I\u2019ve done better with a deadline, but I\u2019ve gotten so far behind that I\u2019ve decided to restart. If I get a chance to do some catching up, great. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":254,"url":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/uncategorized\/journal-of-an-underachiever-more-early-usafa\/","url_meta":{"origin":19,"position":1},"title":"Journal of an Underachiever \u2013 More Early USAFA","author":"Gordon Savage","date":"July 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m back. I\u2019ve unloaded some of the activities that were eating up my time so, hopefully, I\u2019ll be able to do a better job keeping up with this in the future. Now back to my first summer at the Academy. In order to properly use guns of all sorts, we\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":250,"url":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/uncategorized\/journal-of-an-underachiever-clayton\/","url_meta":{"origin":19,"position":2},"title":"Journal of an Underachiever \u2013 Clayton","author":"Gordon Savage","date":"April 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"After trying door to door sales and I don\u2019t know what else, Dad finally found a job that suited him well, working as a surveyor for a small construction firm. I\u2019m not sure why we moved but the new job prompted a new home. We collected all our worldly goods\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/uncategorized\/journal-of-an-underachiever-clayton\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":253,"url":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/uncategorized\/journal-of-an-underachiever-early-days-usafa\/","url_meta":{"origin":19,"position":3},"title":"Journal of an Underachiever \u2013 Early Days USAFA","author":"Gordon Savage","date":"June 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"On the third of June this year I had back surgery. I had a piece of bone removed from the bottom three of my lumbar vertebrae to make more room for my spinal nerve. The procedure is called a laminectomy and is probably the least invasive of backbone surgery. I\u2019ve\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/uncategorized\/journal-of-an-underachiever-early-days-usafa\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":142,"url":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/uncategorized\/journal-of-an-underachiever-second-summer\/","url_meta":{"origin":19,"position":4},"title":"Journal of an Underachiever \u2013Second Summer","author":"Gordon Savage","date":"August 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The summer of \u201957 came and the class took a get acquainted tour. We traveled to most, if not all, the major air commands. It was a whirlwind tour, and I only remember bits and pieces. We visited Wright-Patterson AFB (Air Material Command and Air Force Research and Development Command)\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41,"url":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/uncategorized\/journal-of-an-underachiever-guam-camp-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":19,"position":5},"title":"Journal of an Underachiever \u2013 Guam, Camp 2","author":"Gordon Savage","date":"January 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Before I started writing this, I had to look at Guam again. I used Google Earth, and I think I found Camp 2, but boy has it changed. I have a pretty solid memory of the layout on our side of the main road. It may be totally erroneous, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/uncategorized\/journal-of-an-underachiever-guam-camp-2\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gordonsavage.com\/sowhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}