The Grit Factor

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Know Your Story

“If you don’t like someone’s story, you write your own.”

—Chinua Achebe

I never imagined myself serving in military uniform. Our family’s military history was limited to my father’s four-year service as a JAG officer, drafted after law school for Vietnam and sent at the last minute to Alaska instead. Our family kept his uniformed photo on the wall and spoke of his service with pride.

Something in my dad connected more to serving than protesting, though the latter had been more the social norm during his college years in the 1960s. There was something of the contrarian in my father—something that led him to reject mediocrity and insist on doing things his own way even if it was hard. I always admired and respected these things ...