The Place That Saved My Life

I didn’t choose to go to Valley Forge Military Academy. My mother sent me there as a last resort.

As a child, I was angry. I started skipping school and I had handcuffs on my wrist by age 11. I knew my mother was considering sending me to military school, but I never thought she would actually do it.

I – of course – tried running away. More than once, in fact!

But over time, Valley Forge became a home, and not just for me. Generations of young people like me attended the Forge, and it too became a place where they were surrounded by people so close they might as well be family. A place where you could hold your greatest and most difficult memories.

I wear three things every single day. They remind me who I am, and I wear them because they make me better. The first is my wedding ring. The second is my dog tags. The third is my Valley Forge ring.

Together, these three things remind me there’s nothing I am ever going to see again that I am not prepared for.

My time at Valley Forge taught me that courage is the decision to stay in the spaces where you belong, regardless if belonging wasn’t easy.

My time at Valley Forge taught me that honor is raising your hand to serve, keeping your word, and doing what you say you were going to do.

My time at Valley Forge taught me that conquering is not a “what” – it is why. That it’s an uncompromising commitment to confront challenges. To refuse to surrender your standards. To prove your excellence.

When I was trying to run away and got lost in the woods on my first days at the Forge, no one could have convinced me I would serve as Governor of Maryland.

No one could have convinced me I would serve in Afghanistan alongside the 82nd Airborne.

No one could have convinced me I could make it to my own graduation day – let alone be a commencement speaker for others.

Standing in the chapel last week as I delivered the commencement address for the graduating class of Valley Forge Military College and the 98th – and final – graduating class of Valley Forge Military Academy, I thought about something my commandant, Colonel Billy Murphy, said the last time I saw him there. He told us he was leaving for cancer treatment, and from that pulpit, he said: “When it is time for you to leave this school, leave your job, or even leave this earth, you make sure you have worked hard to make sure it mattered you were ever here.”

That is the assignment. Not just for the cadets I spoke to, but for anyone who has ever been shaped by a place that demanded more of them than they thought they could give.

Last week, I may have said goodbye to Valley Forge Military Academy, but the opportunity it offered and the growth it demanded of me and so many others will always remain.

May God bless the graduates, and may God bless Valley Forge.

Elevate,
Wes