Written by Justin Governale, Friday 19th Aug 2011
Remember your dreams

This blog is about me moving to California the first time in an attempt to make it fighting. The year was 2008 and it was a dream of mine to just move out there and “make it” like they do in movies. Unfortunatly I had just gotten out of the Marine Corps. and although I learned a lot about life, I didn’t know the first thing about living in the “civilian” world. I had just gotten out and was living with a friend in Texas and could not stop talking about going back to my old gym in California to train for a bit. I was free and in Texas but the crowd I was staying with was doing the same stuff that I was involved in before I had left for the Marines which meant I was up to no good. One day I was helping my buddy “prepare” something when it hit me! I was about to throw 4 years of service away for some stupid stuff I used to deal with in High School. I finished, threw everything I owned in a laundry basket and said thanks for letting me stay, jumped in my truck, and didn’t look back. With $1,200 USD in my bank account I was on a 24 hour drive to California to make it.

I arrived with only $800 USD because of the fuel and I had to park outside of my buddies apartment complex. I walk outside in the morning and see my truck had been broken into. There goes a couple hundred dollars…Day two I park inside the complex and when I go outside, since I didn’t have the apartment parking sticker on my window, my truck was towed. There goes another $400 USD to get it out of the impound lot…I am now left with no family in the area, sleeping on a friends couch, and about $250 USD. I don’t even have enough money to drive back to Texas and I don’t want to go back to Texas yet…I want to fight. I somehow make that little money last for two months eating the least I ever had in my life but I was training here and there hitching rides with whoever I could. I literally ended up with maybe $12 USD in my account and got hired to work in Afghanistan to save some money to be able to fight in the future, problem being I could not afford a passport. The only time I had asked my mom for money was at that moment, I had too much pride, the passport was sent to my house in Texas and my mom had sent it to me with about $400 USD in it. I literally wrote a note to my buddy thanking him and telling him sorry for giving up on my dream but I had to leave because I might have gotten hired somewhere. I paid my mom back and ended up leaving to go work overseas.

After I had been working overseas I started getting greedy making some decent money. I now wanted to get a house and started slowly forgetting about my plan to fight. About 2 years into my employment, I remembered something, I remembered my dream and how bad my life had sucked but how happy and yet miserable I was doing it…I at that point in time started to jot down some stuff on a piece of paper. I found that peice of paper today that was dated April 18th 2010. VERBATUM it reads:

*GOALS*
To travel the world for 18 months and get the best base possible, as well as gain as much experience as I can to make me a better fighter. “don’t look back on life when you are 55 wondering what would have happened if you had ever actually followed your dream” -Dad

In order to do this, I have made a budget and given myself a certain amount to spend for the amount of time in each country. This means no drinking and living as costly effective as possible. Train hard and NO GIRLFRIENDS. FOCUS JUSTIN, FOCUS.

Also remember, you have attempted this once before, you can NOT run out of money1! and 2, you need money for when you are done! I have come to the conclusion that I will need 75,000 USD without any sponsers. Remember what it feels like to be broke and admitt that you failed the first time. You set YOURSELF up for failure moving to California with only $1,200 dollars (this included the money for gas to make it, over $400)

Now I know this blog jumps around alot but the reason I am writting all of this is because I am on that 18 month time frame and have been traveling/fighting again since October of 2010. I am also moving to go train in California again tomorrow and as I am packing, I found this note that I wrote to myself. I ALSO have a slight cough and on a cough drop wrapper it read “get back in the game” and “You’ve survived tougher” When I read the cough drop, it’s like it was a sign from the universe…Everything I just blogged about went through my head at once when I read that cough drop. I also found some pictures of my second time in Iraq which were some pretty miserable times. Point being, I have survived tougher and with some of the best people I could have ever survived it with. Time to wake up and drive to California and work harder one day close to that dream. I have a ways to go but one day/fight at a time….
Picture of my truck on my very first patrol overseas, struck with an IED