Bruno |1

Tony Bruno
Professor Carrobis
ENGL101
2/11/2024

Dear Professor,

In writing the draft I worked to make it more or less of a stream of consciousness. That is generally how I
write. I consider and think about a subject without putting it to paper. I know generally what I want to
say and then I begin writing. I edit and revise to fix and shift the tone of the work as I write it. I go back
at the end and reread it and see what can be cut and what should be added. I even cut a whole
paragraph before I uploaded it for the workshop.

Sadly no one actually gave me any revision advice for this essay so I was forced to reread it on my own
before submitting it. In that rereading I changed some of the wording to make it all a bit more clear. To
add more of the personal emotional tone I feel I had started to capture well in the draft. The biggest
changes were a few more key details added to the stories. Expanding on what I recall the Drill Instructor
in the back of the ruck saying though my fog of pain and determination as I limped through the hike. Just
because I will remember that moment forever doesn’t mean I will remember it clearly. Words I will
never forget for sure but the order is jumbled by the years and the pain of the moment. Still I feel I did
well in the few small details I added and words I added to help clarify the tone of the essay.

Hopefully at least in your top five students,

named Tony,
who wrote this exact essay,

Tony Bruno

Never Give Up!

I believe you should give up. Not while you're ahead. Not while you're behind. Not on

anything specific though also not on life. Just that you should give up when you need to and be

able to know and admit when that needs arises. I know everyone tells you to stick it out and to

push through the pain. That "Pain is just weakness leaving the body.", a famous Marine Corp

Quote. I prefer the Welcome to Nightvale1 version as it is truer to the reality of life. "Pain is just

Pain entering the body." It is more realistic to life as we live it. Not all pain makes you stronger.
 Bruno |2

Not all strife is worth suffering through and I hope by the end of this essay you are able to see

when your determination is destroying you and when it is okay, and necessary, to give up. I hope

the belief will stick for you better than it has for me.

So, what happened to make have this odd stance? Well, it was simple. I joined the Marine

Corps. I worked for months to get in shape and I thought I was ready for it. I should have been

ready for it if not for a few key things. I am very tall and I am very flexible. The tall meant when

the time came to do the Log Drills,2 I was carrying close to two hundred pounds of it on my back

thanks to the height difference. The flexibility meant my back muscles needed to be about five

times stronger than I expected to need to be to keep my discs in place. So that simple hour and

half exercise was the start of a spiral in my quality of life. Something annoyingly hard to notice

through the day-to-day pain of Bootcamp.

I barely noticed the pain. What I noticed first was how I could do fewer pull-ups. How

my body was failing me even as I worked hard not to admit it. By the time we got to hikes and

carrying one hundred pounds of gear for one to five miles, I had a full-on limp. Every day I was

getting reminded that I needed to give up and take care of myself. At first in the harsh and cruel

Drill Instructor way and eventually as a genuine heart-to-heart full of worry from them. To see a

Drill Instructor act in genuine concern for you is, unsettling to say the least. Yet still every day

others told me to keep going. I told myself to keep going. I limped through a five-mile hike while

hearing words I will never forget. Words said by the Drill Instructor in charge of berating the

truck of recruits who fell out of the hike. "Look at that recruit there at the back. He is limping
 Bruno |3

and he didn't fall out of the hike. Why the heck did you give up? You think you’re worse off than

him?" Words meant to diminish a recruit who gave up. They were what drove me to ask for

medical help when the hike was over. Still too prideful to ask for it then and there and end up in

the truck.

When I got to medical they took a while to find the full issue but when they did it was

heartbreaking. Had I not given up. Had I powered through it all, odds are good I would have

paralyzed myself within two weeks of infantry training. Odds are good that if I am not very

careful I will be paralyzed at some point in my life and I am sad to say I am still not as careful as

I need to be. I still need to remind myself to follow this belief. Even when I feel rude to do so.

Even when I feel like a quitter. I need to remind myself it is okay to quit. That no amount of

pride is worth your arms and legs. That pushing through the worst should never be done for your

own pride. Only ever to help another. So if you find yourself on your last leg. Limping through

hell and thinking you just need to hold out a little longer. Ask yourself if you are holding out for

your own pride or if others are counting on you. Remind yourself that it is better to have

wounded pride than a broken body.

1: Welcome to Nightvale is a strange podcast and that quote is not from any specific episode to

my knowledge. It is a quote they put on a shirt as a direct parody of the normal quote. So it sadly

can't be cited further than a credit to them.

2: An exercise where ten recruits lift an up to five hundred pound log above their heads and on

their shoulders as a team for one to two hours.