The Lion's Pride Lion's Pride Volume 12 (Spring 2019) | Page 14

I Believe in Quitting
Trevor Lee Close
This story is taken from a time in my life that proved to be one of the
most difficult, taking the experiences to shape who I am today.
I believe in the importance of quitting. Every person on this Earth has
the innate sense to stop, to surrender to the overwhelming circumstances
that may later define who we are. In 2016, I began a long and
unknowingly difficult journey at a place called Ranger School. “Not for
the weak, or faint hearted”: this was one of the first and last things I saw
inscribed on the battle-torn barracks wall that had been there for over a
hundred years. I learned quickly that the men that came before me knew
exactly what they were talking about.
I believe in quitting, but not because I am a quitter. I saw some of the
most hardened men I had ever met fall short, give up, and give in to the
overwhelming odds that was our everyday training. Days of pain and
anguish were only to follow; “Push deeper,” I would tell myself, not
knowing the extent of how deep I could truly go. After three hundred
and ten days consecutively spent in a course that’s meant to only last
sixty- two days, I never found the bottom. I was the last man standing in
a field of crushed hopes and dreams; I stood triumphant. “Not for the
weak or faint hearted.” These words echo in my mind to this day. I had
lived the Ranger Creed, and I never surrendered to the easy way out.