2007: The Year of Nick in Review

It's that time of year again. Time to look back and see all that was accomplished and see what needs to be extended to accomplish next year. As predicted this year did NOT disappoint. I wanted to take the time to wrap up the year and let everyone know how it went:


- (MARCH) Promoted to SGT after so long await
- (MARCH) Travelled to Okinawa, Japan to attend VET conference
- (MARCH) Bought a car and got an apartment, coincidently an apartment full of furniture(to include my big screen TV!!!)
- (APRIL) Travelled to Thailand and crossed one thing off my list I wanted to do before I died in that I rode an elephant
- (MAY) Re-enlisted for 4 more years and got my option for GERMANY!! (I report 5MAY08)
- (JUNE) BECAME AN UNCLE!!!!!!
- (JUNE) Best friends Justin and Brooke became parents (this didn't really happen to me but I am very excited for them)
- (JUNE-AUGUST) Travelled to 6 countries (and island of Guam) and helped with humanitarian efforts aboard the USS Peleliu
- (AUGUST) Awarded the Navy Achievement Medal for Peleliu Mission
- (NOV-DEC) Graduated Leadership course that I need for my next promotion.
- (DEC) Another great pair of friends, RJ and Lauren, had their first baby, CONGRATS!!
- (DEC) From start of the year lost 15 pounds!!!



Goodness, looking back it all makes me smile. I was thinking about extending 'The Year of Nick' out a couple more months but figured I have alot for next year planned as well so I thought it needed it's own title.

Stay tuned for stories, thoughts and comments from




2008: The Silver Anniversary of Nick

Debt Free Is The Way To Be!!

One of the reasons I was glad to come to Japan three years ago was I figured I wouldn't spend as much money as I got caught up doing in DC. I had realized I had amassed a sizeable sum of credit card bills (in my eyes) and needed to do something fast.

While there in DC I made some mistakes financially, and the main one was buying a lemon for a car. It was my first one and it ran me into debt pretty fast. Also I was forced to live in an aparetment as soon as I got there but the pay as an E2 and the price of most DC apartments soon became to much and I was losing money every week. On top of that I was going out with friends almost every weekend so that was more getting thrown on the credit cards. So to say the least after I got rid of my car and moved here I had over 10K on two credit cards and nothing to show for it. I never missed a payment I just seemed to spend more than I made.

I got to Japan and that was one of my goals that I wanted to accomplish. After I got a computer and some other things I needed for my barracks room, I think the total on the three cards was $13K. So I put together a plan and started paying off the crads one at a time and not taking them with me when I went places. After two and a half years I am finally paying the last bill this month. The balance on the lone credit card will be 0 after a long battle, not to mention a credit report that is about 40 points higher than the national average!

And to go along with no debt is an apartment full of furniture, a car and two savings accounts that are doing pretty well. This is a great load off my back just in time for 2008.

Warrior Leader Course

For the last month I was attending Warrior Leader Course, or what the Army used to call Primary Leadership Development. It was in Hawaii so I had to pack up everything and have it down there. The packing list for this class was a mile long, and EVERYTHING needed to be on it.

The first two weeks was pretty much classroom stuff. The primary goal of the non commissioned officer is the soldiers so alot of time was directed on how to teach, counsel and help develop young soldiers. The came the 2 weeks where we were in the field. It first started with Land Navigation where we had to make our way around a 6000 sq m area looking for little markers at given coordinates. We then took to our situational training excercises where we were graded on how well we acted as leaders in given scenarios.

I dont know how it happened but for the first two weeks the weather was beautiful and the last wo the rain never seemed to stop. We even once had a small tropical storm come in and black out the academy.

Overall I think it helped out a little for my professional development. Alot of the stuff was redundant to me because I have had good leaders in the past and everyhting they did for me was mentioned here in the class. They say that your first couple of NCO's help curve what type of NCO we are going to be. I was blessed to have some good ones AND some bad ones. I have repeated the acts of the good and have learned from the decisions of the bad. Hopefully after I tie all this in together and get to use it back here I can become one of the good ones.



Small World Note: At the airport last night I have two strangers come up to me and ask about my 'KANSAS JAYHAWKS' sweatshirt. After talking with them a little bit I find out they are living there attending school in Kansas: McPherson CC and Washburn U. Both of them had plans to attend KU next fall.They had returned to Japan to vist their family for Christmas. Pretty cool, well for me :)