[00:00:00] Hey everybody. Welcome back to Drive On. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio. Now, today my guest is Sylvester Jenkins, and Sylvester is a retired army First sergeant. He’s an author and a mental health advocate, and today we’re going to be talking about his book From Combat to Comeback, how to Conquer the Battles of Adversity, and How to Avoid Letting Circumstances in Your Life Define You.

So welcome to the show, Sylvester. I’m glad to have you here. Hey Scott. Thanks for having me, man. I am greatly appreciated for this opportunity. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I, I read your book and got to know a little bit about you, um, through that experience, but I’m really excited to dive in and learn a, a little bit more about your background and how you handled the, uh, ad adversities and other things that has come up throughout your life.

But for the listeners who maybe haven’t read your book or aren’t familiar with you, uh, could you tell us a little bit [00:01:00] about yourself? A little background? Yes, absolutely. So, uh, I’m originally from Columbus, Georgia. Uh, grew up as a fatherless at-risk youth. Uh, I was constantly surrounded by violence and negative influences.

Uh, gangs had became a surro family in my life. And I was quickly on a, uh, a dangerous path. Uh, I failed multiple times in school. I even was on the verge of dropping outta school. And, uh, I found myself struggling to find, uh, acceptance. Security identity and my purpose. And, uh, it wasn’t until I hit rock bottom that I realized that I needed to make a change.

Uh, I needed to find a way. I needed to find a way out. And, uh, when I did, I decided to join the military. Uh, but even in the military, you know, you face your fair share of hardships. Uh, I deployed multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan. I suffered, uh, uh, uh, acrimonious divorce after coming home from my third deployment, and it took a toll on me mentally and emotionally.

Uh, but through it all, I never lost sight of my goal. And that was to [00:02:00] find my purpose and come out on the other side stronger than ever. And, uh, but. After the military, uh, I faced another battle. Uh, I think it’s one that I feel many veterans face or deal with in their lives, uh, after transition. And that was the battle of finding myself and I was struggling to adjust a civilian life.

Uh, you know, I was. Diagnosed with PTs D, anxiety and depression. Uh, not only that, but the world had just got hit by Covid. So, you know, you can understand the challenges that we had faced at that time. And I felt lost, alone and disconnected from the world itself. And, uh, I was stressed, depressed, and then dead up to my eyeballs.

Uh, I had just lost my mother the previous year in 2019, and, uh, I was on the verge of losing my current family and my home due to foreclosure and, uh, dur. But, uh, I did, I refused to let it break me. Uh, instead, I used that opportunity as quarantine, uh, as an opportunity to invest in myself and to grow and learn more about me.

And that’s when I realized that my past doesn’t define me and that I was [00:03:00] capable of achieving anything that I set my mind to. And it’s because of this that I, I, I had a choice. I realized that I had a choice, that I could either continue to let the scars of my childhood trauma, the military and covid define me and hold me back.

Or I could use this as a tool. To not only control my life, but it, uh, invest in myself and use my experiences to help other...