¶ … Life Author C.E. Johnson explains that there are at least four kinds of passages -- crossroad events and meaningful challenges -- in a person's life that may result in failure. Those four include: a) diversity of work experiences like an important new assignment; b) adversity in work (a key failure); c) a life diversity (blending work and family); and d) life adversity (including injury or illness) (Johnson, 2016). I can truthfully say I have confronted all of Johnson's passages, but two in particular stand out and will be presented in this essay.

Passage Number One (diversity of work experiences)

I was just 17 years of age when, having been sworn in as a sailor in the U.S. Navy and having completed the brutal basic training and additional training as an electrician, I reported to Norfolk, Virginia. There I was assigned a bunk and duty as an Interior Communications Electrician on board the 1,123-foot, 200,000-horsepower U.S.S. Enterprise, which was the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the world.

This was my initial face-to-face coming to terms with not only a radically different and wholly diverse work experience, but with a life passage that challenged my...

It was a kind of wake up call, a social and cultural jolt I couldn't possibly have prepared for. Among the 5,500 sailors on board, there were gang bangers who apparently couldn't make it in civilian life -- and there were even criminals that had embraced the Navy as an escape from the trauma of incarceration.
The wildly dissimilar cultural landscape aboard that enormous vessel brought me to the realization that hitherto my world had been pretty tame, and that my family had been the rock upon which my security and sense of sanctity was grounded. Notwithstanding my initial sense of intimidation on board the Enterprise -- I had never interacted with bloods and crips -- I grew as a person, became friends, learned to make dramatic adjustments, and focused on the big picture which was not about me, but rather it was about assuring that pilots could land safely on the aircraft carrier in the day or night. I will forever be grateful to the Navy for thrusting me into a maturity I hadn't anticipated, and my eyes opened wide as we cruised into ports in Italy, France, Spain, Israel -- and even to "no fly" zones near Iraq and Bosnia.

Passage Number Two and Three…