welcome to new beginnings with care and where we celebrate the creativity courage and wisdom of people creating change we highlight those who charge you pause make new life and career choices and face turning points welcome to new beginnings with karen dell and i am so pleased to have joining me today eugene marsh who i call a serial reinvention welcome   then you made a kind of a three sixty or one eighty and said you know what i think i want to go to school and get my master's if you take that this year i did yeah and you have a nable to secure employment racism was still viable in south carolina especially among men of color african american men so i had a transitional period where i was at my work i was at my worst or at my lowest because of the lack of resources  introduced to me at a very young age of god that was no auto career path to doc that i could have chosen to go into and was not able to go to college because the college was not up a discussion in my in my community and you know for what i for my own construction management construction management schedule and and doing the logistics and control management that's wonderful yes that's wonderful so you did that and then what came next what came next  i was in a dilemma where i wanted to where i started i had begun my education by going back to school i went to most going to college and that sort of brought to light a swell up at last see my associate i said well no that wasn't too difficult what if i don't do if i don't make a change what out when will i be able to do it and that was my that was my turning point and i realized that if i did not make a decision to go and get a bachelor's to get my education to get a master's degree get my expectations were and had to syllabus and a set of about into i have to kick and i looked at the syllabus and i said oh my god what have i got myself into it but i say that you know within that i said look at that too late to turn back now right and i set out different dimension from the students from what you know by just guy you know just god knows what he's doing yeah you know so yeah no that's fantastic and i you know i think there's another thing that you're overlooking if we're going back to two thousand and fourteen it may not have been at that time but you were appointed by the governor at that time governor christie to a commission yes i was point yes i would point to the minority business advisory board and i worked on that capacity as working with the state of new jersey to vote up action plans to point was to bend some ideas and recommendations to address that disparity in terms of state and federal contracts yeah well that but actually i was thinking of something else because you were on appointed to a state it was evaluating and i don't know if i should mention his name or not i mean that shouldn't ok so anyway i went to his office and his conversation to me in his office was i'm looking for an african american to be appointed to the new jersey supreme court and as a as a as a lay person i give my point of views on how i interpret what i understood this conversation with the attorney and come up with some solutions as to what they want how to proceed wow yeah wow i remember i was flipping through you know local newspaper i think it was route one or it might have been some magazine   and as a vietnam veteran i think this this concern that i have in terms of dress and equity and health care yes for african americans and minority communities have has a lot about how true and you know there's there's help that's needed there so your vision now having your masters yes you know clinical mental i'm drawn to the fact of community as a whole especially among african american communities has a disconnect and not be able to go out and seek counseling or to have the resources and also upon the professionals and the  on my shoulders because i know personally and about mental illness i know firsthand about combat i know firsthand about me and women who have been in been in the military and those who have returned home having difficulties when we're just in not only in terms best can can address it and discuss it than those who have been affected by it you know so i come from being a home of being a homeless veteran who i was what i was in south carolina and now transformed us up to where i became  sculptor and manager and then i realized that potential and you know everything has a life cycle you know if you know we there's a beginning and there's any end and i knew that when i finished i wouldn't do that in my transition and i want to do something different i knew that there was there was something lookin out there for education i had to go back to school to do it all to attain this level and it came to a natural fit it was it was it was like a hand on the glove it was just it was a perfect that even my professors and the rest of my students all trauma at home so i brought as a topic and i am looking to promote that at least i gave that more discussion in the community so that we can be more aware of how we can address that and maybe change some of the format in the school system absolutely absolutely and you know just urban living and what you know what youth and adults have to encounter yes with food deserts where there's not you know good food yes you know poor lighting yes you know lack of good schools and safe neighborhood yes yes and it's you know it's no wonder this this drama day they are they are consumed they are confronted with issues that we ask that people don't know even know that exists that what they have been face to face with it and it's causing them caused and great great harm and especially five young black and brown cares who are who are in the early you know that's that's work that needs to be done i want to transition because throughout our conversation you've talked about you know the different twists and turns in the reinvention and i don't wan be but i feel that that need to addressed in terms of giving hope to those who are hopeless inspiring those who are helpless things by giving those individuals who may not feel that they can go another way another block on another week another day it's all possible yes but it had to be had to be internalized and i think that all boys i was in my faith that i that i have embrace i have based more but as i look back on my years in vietnam and what i had to do and my experience and i came back from vietnam the very angry man i was very disheartened i was i was did i was not trust was was was was so close that i did not want anyone to get close to me because they know they did not know what i had done in vietnam or could relate to what i did and i talk about my journey is about my foundation my scripture a way i began and what my phantom nation what courses of action that i saw my environment and saw the same thing i saw what if you had all right in the same people doing the same thing right i said i had to do better than this so my so my journey my my memoirs is talking about overcoming obstacles meeting challenges head on say if he can do it working on that yeah absolutely absolutely well i think the other thing that you possess is confidence and you know to think that's the world that i have i have acquired because i can not disk have if i had to give it back yet after she had with those who have come in contact with and a power also to be camera as i have so many individuals who have come in my life yeah yeah well i think you are a walking testament to how to reinvent yourself how to think you know the said it is very humbling when i have i walked through this jungle it's john not by myself but with a whole lot of people you know walking along with me in this in this process yeah eugene thank you so much for being on the