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What is Truly Seriving?

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Truly serving means “willingness to set aside our personal agenda and serve others on their terms,” and an “eagerness to (…) take proactive steps to find opportunities to serve” (Soper, 1) Service has many layers, including giving up “the normal progression of life-high school, college, work-to do something whose end was civic” (Mangone). However, service generally boils down to four main categories: giving a part of yourself, committing yourself to a cause, believing in something greater than yourself, and asking for help. The men and women of the United States military exemplify each of these categories through their dedication and sacrifice. They are the epitome of service, sacrificing life and limb to protect our freedom. The Wounded Warrior Project offers a number of programs, including Warriors to Work, Peer Support, Family Retreats, and many others to serve veterans after they have returned from the line of duty.
Service means giving a part of yourself. For Army Staff Sergeant Chris Gordon this was literal; Chris lost his right leg while serving in Iraq. On March 13, 2005, he was participating in a routine patrol in the Iraqi city of Tal-Afiar. According to Chris,
“They said we were going to take part in a search. By that time, we’d been in Iraq for six months, and we had done a lot of searches like that. Then on that morning, we found some contraband, confiscated it, and then we were consolidating around a mosque. Each Stryker came up and lined up before we got the

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