To some, destiny might just be a coincidence, but for Cadet Matthew Soldier his fate is to be in the Army. Born on July 4th, America’s birthday, Soldier grew up loving the Army. He would play with Army action figures, draw pictures of them, and even pretend to be a Soldier himself, but now he is no longer playing make believe.

Soldier joined Army ROTC at Oklahoma State University and is now assigned to 2nd Regiment, Basic Camp at Cadet Summer Training.

While Soldier is the first to serve in his family, his last name represents a long line of people who have served for America’s freedom. Now bringing the literal meaning of his last name to fruition, Soldier plans to be a behavioral health specialist for the Army.

“I always liked psych in high school and I thought it was interesting how the mind works,” said Soldier.

While Soldier is studying psychology, he said many of those classes have helped him at camp when it came to motivating himself and others.

“People overthink a lot and count themselves out after they do one bad thing,” said Soldier.

“But the more psych classes you start to take the more you realize that it’s just a natural response for humans, so the real hump is getting over it and moving on to the next thing.”

One of the key values of the Army is personal courage. With Soldier having a psychology background, it has allowed him to understand his own fears and push beyond them.

“Psych is helping me learn patience,” said Soldier.

“It’s not the end of the world if you shoot one bad group or fail one obstacle. You’re going to overcome it no matter what so it’s just a matter of if you want to do it now or later. You just have to get that mindset that you’re going to do it.”

At Cadet Summer Training, cadets are working to become Army officers. Soldier said while being a leader is important, in order to become a true leader you first must be willing to learn from others.

“The mindset you should have is to not be a leader but rather asking help from others to become an even better leader”.