Regardless of who you are, where you are, or what you are doing in this world right now, my hope is that every word of what I share with you will connect to you in some way. 

I say this solely because I live to give all I have in this world and truly believe that the best way to go forward is to give back and help others, just as others have helped you in life.

   My name is Jason Ram. I served in the military, worked in youth development, and have a background in freelance journalism. Like so many others in this world, I did not have a peaceful start to life and grew up in a home that was anything but stable.

  I learned how to deal with a multitude of pains that included domestic violence, bullying, and an identity crisis of sorts for being born into one culture while being shunned by the other. How do you gain acceptance from your friends while fighting for acceptance from your family? How do you fit in and stand out?

   It was also hard to keep up in school, when there was so much to keep quiet about at home. Since I could not share what I was going through, I just did what I had to do to get through the day. To cope with the chaos I felt in my heart, I started writing in my room. I wrote letters to myself, wrote poetry, and wrote fanfiction based on my favorite shows.

   I used my creativity to escape my reality. The more pain I felt, the more I wrote. The more I wrote, the better I became as a writer. I learned how to use my mind to survive whatever I was going through and stay focused on the inside.
 
As a result, I became widely regarded by teachers as being good at writing, but very little else. While many of them encouraged me to keep writing, there was one that told me to avoid doing anything else, Ms. Payne. 

   Ms. Payne served as one of my first teachers in high school, who later became the strongest source of motivation. She routinely advised me, with care, that my biggest goals of going to college, becoming a writer, and joining the military to become an Air Force officer were beyond my abilities. 

   During my first life-after-high-school talk  with her, she advised me to get a job, avoid college, and forget about joining the military because “The Air Force has the highest requirements of math and science. That is them. That is not you. So, that’s probably not gonna happen.” 

   While it would have been easy to accept her advice, it would have been hard to live with it, so I chose not to. Instead, I wrote my goals on a piece of paper every morning, and repeated it to myself at least once every day.

   A few months later, I watched the 9/11 attacks live on TV. When I saw the Twin Towers fall, I felt my heart drop, and my patriotism rise. Suddenly, I did not care how anyone saw me, because I now saw myself in a different light. 

   It broke my heart to see those people die, and I never forgot the pain, anger, and drive I felt to do something about it. I now had 2,977 reasons to go after my dreams. 

   10 years later, I graduated from Air Force officer’s training in 2011. It was a dream-come-true that required me to go through a nightmare to make it happen. After rising to the rank of Captain, I chose to transition out to work in youth development and pursue a career rooted in serving others.

   Today, I am very much a peaceful guy at heart and live a quiet life. I don’t smoke, or drink, or post much on social media (I don’t live for ‘likes’). And the only club I care about has plenty of parking and bulk items at low prices.
 
By all accounts, you could say I live a boring life, and I’d say you were right because it’s nowhere near the hyperactive and outwardly attractive lifestyle that is so often desired.  

But it is a life I am happy with because it allows me to have some inner peace while keeping my focus on serving others.
 
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Enjoy the book!
 
Much love and respect -Jason