Nick Koumalatsos

2014 Gun in my pocket. South end of an island. I had convinced myself my daughters would be better off without the version of me they had inherited.

The waves got loud enough to cut through what was in my head, and I remembered both of them running on a beach a couple years before. Chasing the surf. Turning around to let the waves chase them back. Laughing.

That memory put the gun back in my pocket. I walked back to my truck. I drove home.

I almost stopped being their father that night. I am sitting here a decade later, with both of them still in my life, with a wife I built a real marriage with, with businesses I built from zero, because of a single image my brain handed me on a beach when it had every reason to fail me.

Father’s Day is in 17 days. The book about the climb back is live for pre-sale today. Reclaim the Man Within. A Marine Raider’s framework for men done drifting. $9.99.

If you are closer to that beach than you would say out loud, this is for you.

Comment PRESALE and I’ll dm you the link.