Solving A Three Piece Puzzle
In 2014, Stefen Fleming was just another incoming student-athlete at Montclair State University, eager to get his college experience underway. But a year later, he decided to add another title to his resume — a member of the National Guard. Now with the fall 2017 semester ending, Fleming feels like he balanced all three of his lifestyles out pretty well.
“My life is like a puzzle you can say, a 3-piece puzzle,” Fleming said. “I just had to figure out what piece goes where and get that perfect picture.”
Being a National Guard requires a lot of time — from the grueling training sessions, to always being on hand whenever help is needed. Of course this requires Fleming to miss sometime in school. In fact, he is preparing to miss the spring 2018 semester.
“I will be in the Force Reactive Unit; this qualifies us to go ‘down range’ if we’re ever needed.” Fleming explained.
He continued to say that he was anxious to see how the training would be, but he is up for the task.
“This wouldn’t be the first time I missed school, but it still feels a little weird to me leaving,” Fleming said. January 2015 is when Fleming joined the Army, causing him to miss the spring semester of that year aswell.
Missing whole semesters of school and seeing all of your friends slowly move on without you can make you feel an awkward way. However, Fleming copes with it and keeps in mind that this will only make him a better person.
Getting more comfortable in his chair, Fleming prepared to tell the story of how he decided to join the Army. His dad is also a member of the National Guard, which played an important role in the decision.
“I had a dream my dad was working and he needed people to go to Iraq,” Fleming said. “He had no one to go to so, I volunteered myself.” He continued saying he was impressed about how he looked in that well-known earthy camouflage uniform.
Waking up, it was crystal clear what Fleming wanted to do: “I woke up and told my dad and then I wanted to make my dream reality.”
David Fleming, Stefen’s dad seemed to be waiting for this moment for a while, as he wasn’t really surprised when Fleming came to him.
“I was ready for the legacy to be continued,” Mr. Fleming laughed. “I was proud and I knew he can take on that challenge.”
Fleming went to West Point Military school, just like his dad and that is where his training started. But attending West Point would mean he would miss another training session that was important to him — off-season football workouts for the Red Hawks.
“Football is something that will always be close to me. Missing out on being with my team definitely sucked the most,” Fleming said. He played wide receiver and special teams for the Red Hawks where his heart and soul was always on the field.
Tyquese Jackson, a teammate and close friend of Fleming spoke about what it was like not having his energizing friend in locker room, in which their lockers are next to eachother. “It was definitely different not having him around, that’s my guy,” Jackson said. “He makes things funny — who doesn’t like a funny guy?”
The spring semester is for the football team to keep their players in good shape, running endlessly up and down the field. Of course with him training to be an Army soldier, Fleming was right with his teammates, sweaty and winded.
“It killed two birds with one stone, I’m doing something that I need to do to achieve my goal and, it also helps me out with something I love which is football.” Fleming said. “But I’ll take wind sprints over PT (Physical Training) anyday.”
When the season comes around, sometimes Fleming still has to go to drill during the week but he is able to do both with the help of his coach and superiors. “They both understand what I do, so we compromised and made it work.”
Although he was missing school, Fleming still was focused on going back and so was his dad. “I definitely wanted to finish school, he started it so he has to finish,” Mr. Fleming said. Education is important to the Fleming family.
Through all this, Fleming still manages to keep his GPA above a 3.0 which is pretty good seeing as how he has so much going on. He simply said all of this is “slight work.”
One can only imagine how difficult it is to be cramming for an exam on one day, participating in drill another, then having a football game on the weekend. When asked if he considered just focusing solely on one thing, Fleming responded quickly “absolutely not, I signed up for all of this, I knew what I was getting into so I have to carry that weight.”
“I respect him for that,” Jackson said. “Not everybody is built to live the lifestyle he does, some people can’t even handle one thing let alone three things like that, so yeah, he’s definitely strong willed.”
A student, a football player, and an Army soldier — Fleming is doing it all with ease with people around him motivating him to be great. “I’m living my life, making people proud and I solved that puzzle,” Fleming said. “I’d say I’m living pretty good right now.”
