Scott DeLuzio   00:00:00    Thanks for tuning into the Drive On Podcast, where we’re focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and now let’s get on with the show. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Drive On Podcast. Today, my guest is Alundas Havens. Alundas is a Marine Corps veteran who hosts The Winners Paradigm podcast, where he helps others learn what they can do to create daily habits that can help them achieve their goals. And in this episode, we’re going to talk a little bit about some of the ways that we can work to better ourselves through some of the things that he talks about on his podcast.  Welcome to the show. Why don’t you go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and things like that?  

Aludas Havens    00:00:57    Yes, sir. Thank you, Scott, for having me on the show brother, it’s an enormous pleasure to be able to be here and help out other veterans. I’m originally from Fresno, California, which is the center of California, not the good part. Growing up there was a fun time. It’s just a different mindset. It’s looking at somebody differently. It’s a different mindset on the way that people interact and so forth.  Basically what I’m saying is my whole life is kind of how my parents raised me and adapted to my environment. I controlled myself in a box and I lived in that box for only thinking of those certain topics. Didn’t really expand, don’t push your beliefs on me, all the way until when I got into high school, I started challenging these things that my stepdad was. He was real conservative and it wasn’t that he was conservative.  

Aludas Havens     00:01:48    It was just some of the things he would say was outdated or ingested. That’s where, when you start challenging those things, people get upset. It was one of those where it was like, you can’t say this because now you’re hyper analyzing everything. Someone saying it was one of those where it was like, Hey, who do I want to be? I started realizing that there were a lot of things that I didn’t agree with, that he was doing and that’s okay. That’s where we’re able to revitalize and see. I ended up getting kicked out of my house. I’m bumming it off my friend’s couches. When I was about 16, I started just going home every day. I would do my chores out of the state with my friends because I knew an altercation with my stepdad would happen eventually in order to get kicked out.  

Aludas Havens    00:02:26    Ultimately that did happen when I turned 18. I moved back in a week later, called my recruiter. Hey brother, I need to get up outta here. Shipped out three months early, probably the best thing I ever did in my life. I ended up going to the Marine Corps, came home from boot, left a traumatic event that almost changed that did change my life. But it could have been a lot worse. That was one of the eye-openers where it was like this place that you call home is not your home don’t ever go back. Coming to that point, it was really tough for me. I had two friends that died then,  while I was in the Marine Corps, a third friend that had cancer died before I went on deployment. That was tough trying to be in that mindset, but knowing that you were still hurting, but us as veterans,  we push everything to the side, we keep going.  

Aludas Havens   00:03:09    It was not really understanding who I was certainly, but it was go...