Brett attended the University of Kentucky to study economics. He joined the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps and upon his graduation in December will be commissioned into the United States Army Reserves as a Transportation Officer. This is an excerpt from his speech he delivered during the 2018 8th Grade Graduation Ceremony.

 

"I would like to give two bits of advice to your class that I have learned throughout my admittedly short life. It is my belief that these two things have helped me to be more successful in my endeavors ever since I started applying them. The first one is something I took from "virtue ethics," which you will learn more about in the ethics class you will take in upper school. Virtue ethics is the belief that you can be the best person you can be by finding the perfect balance between two vices. I believe that it is very important to find a balance between work and play. Balance in everything is almost always a key to success but I believe that balance between these two will be the most important for you in your next few years as students in upper school, college, and beyond.

 

Whenever I think about the importance of balancing work and play, I think about a saying my dad told me all the time growing up but I never took to heart until I was in college. He would always tell me, “Do what you need to do before you do what you want to do.” This might give you a bit of a clue as to which side I was unbalanced on when I was younger. If you asked any of my teachers back in upper school what my greatest weakness was, they would probably say that I really did not like doing my homework. To be fair to younger me, I was at school almost every day all day from 7:30 am to 6:30 pm because of sports or whatever extracurricular activity I was involved in. I did not want to spend more time doing school stuff than I already did and would rather just relax until I had to be at school the next day. This really ended up hurting me in the long run because my grades suffered. As happy as I am now with how my life has turned out so far, I really do wonder what schools I could have gotten into had I just worked to reach my full potential back in high school. So, I implore you, to have diligence in your endeavors. Do what you need to do and do it well so that you can succeed in the years to come.

 

But there is still the other side of that imbalance which would be when you work too much. While there are things you need to do, never forget that every now and then you need to take a break, cut loose, and enjoy yourself. My maxim for this imbalance would be, “Burning the candle at both ends makes it burn out twice as fast.” If you are working really hard for long periods of time, you are going to burn out. The people I know who are especially guilty of never taking breaks are usually miserable and a lot of times end up not doing as well as other people who know when and how to take a break and rest. Stress is a very real thing and you have to find a way to deal with it.

 

My second piece of advice is to have values and a value system that you stand by. And I do mean a value system similar to Gerstell’s. When I was first joining ROTC at the University of Kentucky, I had to be interviewed by a board and write an essay. The point of doing this was to prove to the cadre of my program why I deserved to be in the army. The essay prompt was simple, “Explain what makes you uniquely qualified to serve as an officer in the United States Army.” That is a really tough and open-ended prompt. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the values of the Army were almost the same or at the very least similar to the values Gerstell had instilled in me.

 

The United States Army has a value system that comprises of several parts. Two of my favorite parts are the Warrior Ethos and the Army Values. The Warrior Ethos is split into four statements that every soldier should live by. “I will always place the mission first," which is similar to what my dad used to tell me all the time with “Do what you need to do before you do what you want to do.” ... “I will never accept defeat” and “I will never quit” which remind me a lot of Principles four and six and the attribute perseverance. The last one is “I will never leave a fallen comrade” which is one of the greatest examples of “Treat others as you want to be treated.”

 

My other favorite part is the Army Values. They are Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. All of those can be compared to other parts of the Gerstell Value System. Can you piece together what the acronym for the Army Values is? L D R S H I P. It’s leadership in military jargon, just like Gerstell’s attributes. My cadre at the program thought my essay was great and that my experience here at Gerstell made me qualified to serve in the greatest fighting force the world has ever known. The Army was almost a perfect fit for the values I have, which I think is such a large part of why I enjoy it so much. It’s also an example of how the Principles and Attributes were useful to me outside of my time at Gerstell.

 

Having tangible values gives you a measuring point for individuals and organizations. If you know what you stand for, you can find others that share what you think is important or find an organization that will be an extension of yourself and that you will truly love to be apart of. Besides that, having your values explicitly stated will always remind you of what you believe is important. Knowing what you believe will guide you through any adversity."