 2021 main Army National Guard soldier and NCO of the year. It's an annual event that we have here in the state of Maine and the purpose is to select the best NCO and the best soldier in the state of Maine to compete at the regional level. The overall goal of the program or the competition is to build morale, to push the soldiers to the limits and then ask for a little bit more. I couldn't have asked for anything better out of those competitors. Each competitor is recommended to have a mentor here with them and that mentor is to keep them on track to make sure they have the right packing list, make sure they're in the right place in the right time and kind of keep them focused on what the next task is. Otherwise a soldier could come in there with just the amount of stress and going from task to task. Kind of that comforting feeling to look at somebody and say, hey, you know, just keep going. Do the best you can. Don't worry about that last task. We'll move on and look forward to the next one. It's one, a good opportunity to test yourself and two, a good time to learn a thing or two. It was, you know, day one I think is more of a mental day. The next day we did night to day land nav, which is pretty cool. I've never done that before. So there's a lot of cool new experiences to go into this. And then the second mystery event was a gas attack, which is, you know, never fun, but it's also even more humbling to, you know, be able to trust your equipment and, you know, go through the motions. I think all around it was a really great experience, learned a lot, got to, you know, make some new friends, meet some new people. So it's a good time. I was overthinking it a lot coming here, debating if it was the right choice or not. But I think once you make the final decision and actually show up, it's just smooth sailing from there. Competing in the best war was a mix of ups and downs, but overall it was a good experience. I learned a lot. I can teach other soldiers as well of what I learned from the experience and excited to move on from here. Knowing that I can do this, it boosts my confidence to do even more. It's a high stress environment and they're going from sun up until sun down. Very long days, but they came in and they did their best. And at the end of the day, that's all we can ask. And hopefully they learn a little bit about themselves and about their other competitors. They're a group of soldiers that have all gone through the same thing, endured the same stress level, the same gut check, and it's incredible to see the amount of motivation and camaraderie that comes out of an event like this. Keep going, keep going!