In search of value: A Treks for Vets story
Over the past couple of weeks I have been taking an informal poll of self worth from some veterans I have been working with. The poll is simple. On a scale of one to ten, one being low and ten being high, how would you rate your self value or self worth. And since I have been just winging this research thus far, lets call this scale the Veterans Self-Valuing Scale or VSVS for short. The sample is not a large one but includes a total of 15 veterans and 3 military affiliated persons as well. Military affiliated meaning, they are or were dependents of veterans. Of the 18 participants in my informal research the highest score was a 10 by one person and the lowest was a half of one point by two participants. The rest of those asked the question responded 2-4 on the scale. I asked this question to 9 veterans during our bi-annual Treks for Vets AZ wilderness journey, co-sponsored by the ASU’s Pat Tillman Veterans Center and the Office of Veteran and Military Academic Engagement (OVMAE). Seven of those nine veterans polled on day two of of the Treks for Vets trip were participants in the program designed to help student veterans recharge, reimagine, reinvigorate and reconnect with fellow veterans who have shared experiences and to find healing from trauma they may have experienced while serving.
As I listened to the student veterans rattle off the low numbers for the VSVS, I was struck by the fact that each of them qualified their low numbers. They mentioned that finding value in themselves apart from others was difficult. They reminisced about probably finding more self worth as part of the team they were in while serving and that their value has gone down since separating from their branch. The participants too were struck, because they had rarely, if ever, been asked such a pointed question about how they truly felt about themselves.
On the final day of our Treks journey, after moments of vulnerability, tears, laughs, and connections with our readings and one another something sort of amazing happened. I put the question back to them and each participant reported back at least a 1 point improvement on the the VSVS. It would leave one to infer that vulnerability, tears, laughs, and connections with one another can indeed raise one’s self value.
All of us are on this life journey or Trek. All of us struggle to find value in ourselves, but together we can remind each other of our intrinsic value. Simply put, each one of us matter.
I leave you today with this as you journey for your own value, “Walk on, let the feet inform your soul”. -Doug Peacock
