Lance D. Hansen, layman, hunter, trapper, student, athlete, soldier, and patriot, was raised under harsh and often unfair circumstances in a small wood-heated home in Northern Wisconsin. Fight or flight were often the only choices that mattered. Daily family life could be as harsh as the Wisconsin winters. Early school life could often be the same. First, he learned to endure, then to fight, but never to flee. One day he simply decided to alter his own future, and through academic and athletic accomplishment gained the attention of coaches, local politicians, and other adults with decision authority. If truth be told, there were times when it was touch and go, where the margin between success and another outcome was very thin. But gradually, some say suddenly a small-town local had a chance not before considered. Stars aligned, and he was appointed to the United States Military Academy, struggled early, but graduated and was commissioned. Strong relationships that endure to this day were forged under the pressure. He served in war during Desert Shield/Desert Storm and was acknowledged. He left uniformed service before his career was complete to attend to family needs. He joined the Army Civilian Corps-as a civilian servant and eventually served at senior and executive levels of two Army laboratories. Along the way he attended advanced education as a project and found his way into and through a Doctoral program at Purdue University. After retiring from the Army, the Nuclear Security Enterprise welcomed him to their family where he now continues another form of service to our collective national security. Alongside his professional life, Lance has enjoyed woodworking, beekeeping, animal husbandry, vegetable farming, sawmilling, welding, crafting, studying, antiquing and thrifting. All experiences have lessons to share. He still finds life is rich with possibilities. He credits his wife Susan of thirty-five years and counting, for the stability needed to manage learning and adapting through the half-done projects of life's personal and professional trials while raising their three children into healthy adulthood. He and Susan are proud of these young adults. They are why this book exists now, and why others may yet be on the way. These lessons were very real, gained along a hard journey thus far taken, and more are likely to come. The next leg of the journey is likely around the corner.