Steve Alvarez served in the Connecticut Army National Guard and deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan during his military career.
After getting out and struggling with finding his place in the civilian world, he came to the conclusion that there is life outside of the military. At first, civilian life seemed wrong, but he came to realize that it wasn’t wrong, just different from what he was used to.
Steve found various activities helped him readjust back into civilian life, including Brazilian Ju Jitsu, Yoga, and being the vocalist in a Melodic Metalcore band.
He also became the first Yoga instructor to go through his yoga school who used his Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits. In doing so, he helped pioneer a way for veterans to use their federal benefits going through to become yoga instructors. Practicing yoga and becoming an instructor helped not only physically, but also opened him up to become a more compassionate and positive thinker.
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Scott DeLuzio: 00:03 Hi everybody. This is the Drive On Podcast where we talk about issues affecting veterans after they get out of the military. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio and now let’s get on with the show.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:15 Hey everyone, thanks for tuning into the Drive On Podcast. Before we get started, I just wanted to take a minute to ask a quick favor from the people who are listening. The point of this podcast is to help veterans through sharing stories like the one we’re about to hear today. But it can’t really help if no one hears the story. So, if you would, hit pause for a second and head on over to Drive On Podcast/subscribe where you can find links to subscribe to the show and review the show on your favorite podcasting app. And if you wouldn’t mind taking a second to share the podcast on social media or even directly to a friend who you think might benefit by listening to the podcast, I’d really appreciate it. All right, so today my guest is Steve Alvarez. We served together in the Connecticut Army National Guard and we deployed together to Afghanistan in 2010. That wasn’t his only trip to the Middle East, which I’m sure he’ll discuss here in a bit. Steve, welcome to the show. Why don’t you introduce yourself for anyone who doesn’t know you and let people know who you are.
Steve Alvarez: 01:18 How you doing, Scott? First of all, man, thanks a lot for having me here and it’s really good to hear your voice and I feel it’s an honor to be on this show first and foremost. I really appreciate this. You pretty much hit the nail on the head with the introductions. I’m Steve Alvarez, I served from July 27th of 1999 until July 27th of 2016. I left the military as an E6 Staff Sergeant and I rose up through the ranks from private E nothing all the way up to Staff Sergeant. I took many roles throughout the military and the military was my full-time job. Like Scott said, Scott and I deployed back to Afghanistan together in 2010. And before that I went to Iraq from January of 2004 was the MOB up until May of 2005.
Scott DeLuzio: 02:20 Awesome. So anyways,
Scott DeLuzio: 02:30 part of the show, we like to talk about the struggles that some vets have gone through and some of the ways that they work their way out of those struggles and in the coping mechanisms and all those ty...
