Faith is believing in something without actual proof. Having full trust in something, someone or an idea. It is having unquestionable belief and honoring that belief with the utmost respect. Though this book deals with faith, it is by no means my intention to mix in religious topics in the context of this book. I present you with three main topics in which I have gained sincere appreciation throughout my military and college life.

The first topic I touch on is social. I have read and experienced much about what society deems as accepted behavior—the norms and taboos in American culture. My main inspiration for this section came from the sociology course I had the privilege of taking at Santa Monica College. I say privilege because it is getting to be extremely hard to get into any city college classroom these days due to all these damn California budget cuts.

The second topic I present you with is on Politics. This is an area I dealt with during my six year military service, covering from 2004-2010. Politics play a huge role in any government organization and the Army is extremely good at this. Through bureaucratic process and quid pro quo, an up and upcoming soldier can gain a lot. It does take a great work but it all comes down to the correct network that allows an individual to succeed—as it holds true in any organization.

The last section in this book focuses on the environment—a topic that I have recently grown to care for and take seriously. After taking the inspiring Recycling and Resource Management course at Santa Monica College, I learned that we all need to be a source of solution to sustainability. The limited amount of resources will soon deplete if we continue this consumerism lifestyle. Generations to come will bear the burden due to our selfish acts, burdens that our current generation faces from the consumerist spirit brought upon by the post-war era. It is with this topic that I wish to enlighten those of you who just haven’t had the opportunity to seek out the solutions needed to keep human life afloat. It is up to us, the conscious adult, to live in sustainability in order to provide the same opportunities to those future generations.

This is the reality I see through my eyes. Through war, peace, love, hate, optimism and pessimism—I seek to show you my reality. Everyone goes around carrying their own perception of reality but we never seem to stop and think how others see the world. In order to become that idealistic society where peace defeats war, we need to observe the world in different angles. We are the ever more tolerant contemporary society but there are still great milestones to reach. I can only hope these readings can bring you a bit closer to what I view as an idealistic reality.