Photo By Cpl. Victoria Hutt | U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Nick Burgess, an information systems technician with the...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – Hungry, fortuneless, and ever uncertain of where his next meal would come from, U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Nick Burgess, an information systems technician with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, grew up with his mother and four brothers in poverty. A few years after high school, the Hudson, North Carolina native, made the decision to join the Marine Corps in hopes to provide a better quality of life for him and his family.
"I didn’t enlist for almost two or three years after I graduated high school,” said Burgess. “I was a little bit of a late joiner, but it got to the point with our situation where it was either join the military to support my family or just keep struggling.”
Even though Burgess’ family struggled with homelessness, his mother led by example to instill the value of always prioritizing family.
“There were nights where we didn’t have places to sleep, and nights when we didn’t have dinner,” said Burgess. “We’d even have to brush our teeth in the water fountains in the park, but my mom and grandma always kept us in good spirits.”
Young Burgess originally believed that providing for his family only meant ensuring financial stability. Early on in his career within the Marine Corps, he sent most of his paychecks back home to his family. Now, as a husband and father, he has learned that his duty to his family means ensuring they are physically, emotionally, and financially taken care of.
“I just really wanted to take care of my family,” said Burgess. “For the first two years after I enlisted, almost every one of my paychecks went to my family back home, just because of the situation they were in. Now, I think the job as a father and husband is to make sure that your significant other and child never have to even slightly see any of the kind of hardships I had when I was younger.”
Burgess wasn’t afforded the white picket fence dream childhood some get to enjoy. To Burgess, it is of the utmost importance that his daughter, Sadie, is granted the childhood he never had. Because of his tough upbringing and even tougher mentality, Burgess is set on not letting his past bleed into her future.
His ability to compartmentalize hardship stems from the mentality that things could always be worse. For Burgess, joining the Marine Corps took him out of his homelessness and gave him the ability to provide for the people he loves. Although the service has its own challenges, he constantly reminds himself that he’s lived through harder days, a mindset instilled in him through family.
“I feel like people get so caught up in the idea of their own world and they get stuck,” he said. “If they just took a step back to look around, there are plenty of situations in the world that are way worse off than we are.”
Burgess’ resilience is not just one of his principles, it’s a mindset instilled by his family. The Marine Corps gave Burgess an outlet to grow into a well-rounded, tough, husband, father and warfighter.
(U.S. Marine Corps story by Lance Cpl. Victoria Hutt)
| Date Taken: | 10.11.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 10.13.2023 08:39 |
| Story ID: | 455540 |
| Location: | CAMP LEJEUNE, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | HUDSON, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 224 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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