FORT KNOX, Ky — Almost every Cadet that enlists in the United States Army has one end goal in mind — to graduate and commission as an officer. However, for Cadet Victor Valdes, his dream not only consists of commissioning, but it also comes with more simple, idealistic goals.

A stable, reliant life where he can provide for his family after he graduates college.

“[A] simple house [and] a white picket fence, that is all I want,” Valdes said. “I do not want a million dollars — just a simple life and [to] provide for my kids, because I did not have that.”

Having grown up with no parents in his home territory of Guam, with his mother having been an addict and his father never being around to raise him or his siblings, Valdes lived on the “streets” with his younger brother for 10 to 12 years, in neighborhoods full of drug dealers and “meth houses,” before he was taken in by his uncle, a lawyer who Valdes claimed taught him right from wrong.

“I was a pretty bad kid, because I grew up with no role model,” Valdes said. “All I saw was drug dealers and drug addicts. So, he taught me what is right, what is wrong and how to perceive the world.”

At that time in his life, Valdes claimed that he was envious of the people around him — of the families that he wanted but did not have. He was even envious of his cousins for a while, until his uncle changed his perspective.

“[He] taught me [that] it is never how you start, it is how you finish,” Valdes said. “So, although I had a bad start, it does not matter. The only thing that matters is how I finish.”

After his grandma passed away when he was younger, Valdes said that he did not have much going on in his life and had considered enlisting in the Air Force. However, during his junior year of high school, a recruiter came to his school to talk about ROTC and college scholarships, and his path changed.

“I applied for the National Army Scholarship, and by senior year, I found out I got it. I do not regret a thing,” Valdes said.

Despite the start of his journey, Valdes believes that his upbringing influenced the person that he has grown into today.

“If I did not grow up with hardship. I think I would have been less motivated,” Valdes said. “It motivated me to keep moving forward, to do my best, [because] I knew how it felt to struggle, to be hungry and to have no shelter.”

Now, as a business marketing major in college, Valdes wants to pursue a career in Public Affairs after he graduates and commissions as an officer.

The life lessons that his uncle instilled in him while growing up were not ones that Valdes abandoned in his adolescence, but carried with him all the way to the Army.

“He always told me that life is never easy, [and] it is never going to be easy. If it is easy, then you are not doing something right,” Valdes said. “So, although I am doing all this military stuff, [and’ it is hard, I know that I [have] got to get through it.”