About the Author

Originally dated 6/22/13

About the Author

My name is Dave Kemper.  I turned 61 years old in early 2013.  My life has been filled with a wide variety of challenging and rewarding experiences, including two battles with cancer.

In my public schooling years, I learned to live in fear of the bullies who made my life a living hell every day I was at school.  From these experiences I feel I am able to understand and relate to the behavior changing effect that comes from living with the chronic fear-inducing power of physical, verbal, emotional, and even sexual abuse, all from my fellow classmates.

As a result of these childhood traumas, I didn’t grow up learning how to believe in myself, which is an important part of being prepared to enter adulthood ready to “go out into the world” and succeed.  Instead, I lived with, struggled against, and eventually overcame chronic long-term depression in my early 50’s.  Every part of the process by which I eventually learned how to overcome depression and learn to like myself in a healthy confidence-creating way came as a result of me realizing that I needed to get help with whatever personal problem I was currently able to recognize the need to get help with, so I could make more personal growth and improvement.

I have also learned of and experienced the freedom and personal power that comes from forgiving those who hurt me.  Because of that choice to forgive, I was finally able to learn how to be free of the daily need to live in fear of a repeat of past hurts and abuses.  This, in turn, provided me with the power to learn from my past experiences without having to relive the very powerful emotions once associated with them.  I am now free to remember and learn from that part of my past without the fear of reliving the emotional horror that is no longer connected to those memories.

Early in my adult life I was presented with an opportunity to become self-employed in what had been a family run business that dominated a four county area.  Our efforts to expand the business was met with poor timing in connection with the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens, which eventually forced the business to close.  Six-inches of ash on the level caused many people to change their financial priorities and spending habits.

I soon made the decision to buy some time to figure things out by enlisting in U.S. Army.  I am grateful that my 4-year tour of duty was during peacetime.  I am also grateful for being able to have my family with me to live in and experience different parts of the US and the world.

When my time in the Army came to an end, I returned to civilian life, used my VA benefits to help pay my way through college.  To cover college and living expenses that were above and beyond what my VA benefits paid for, I also worked a series of part-time and full-time jobs. 

I chose to major in business, and while talking with my various college advisers, I followed my goal of taking classes that I believed would help me learn things that would have given me the best potential of knowing how to successfully get the family business I once owned through the rough years following the eruption of Mount Saint Helens.

When my college years ended, I had obtained an Associated Degree in Accounting and a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration specializing in Organization Management plus a secondary specialty in Administrative Office Management. 

My class schedule, plus my homework and study time, plus the time spent working the jobs I was using to help pay my way through college, also resulted in my being so exhausted that I didn’t care whether I got out of bed or not.  I had spent my last 3 years of college averaging 3-5 hours of sleep a night without the aid of caffeine or other stimulants.  I had pushed through on shear will power and personal energy.

In the years since obtaining my bachelors degree I have been in management with other companies.  I have had the responsibilities of hiring, firing, training, discipline, inventory control, and managing daily operations so as to stay within pre-set budget guidelines.  I have accumulated over 6 years of paid and volunteer teaching and tutoring experience.

I have served as a volunteer member on a number of committees and organizational leadership groups including, a college forum made up of students and instructors, a chamber of commerce sub-committee, and as one of a group elected to the board of a non-profit club with a specially focused membership.

I have also had the privilege of serving in various unpaid, (totally volunteer) leadership and teaching positions within my church covering a period of at least six years.

I spent many years of my adult life struggling to learn how to get my household income above the poverty line so I could end my reoccurring dependence on some type of food or other assistance.

Through all of these challenges and experiences, I have learned to thank the Lord my God for guiding me through them and for loving me enough to stay with me in spite of myself.

I believe that there are those in our society who are also refusing to quit, while at the same time they continue to struggle against the challenges of not knowing how to rise above their current circumstances. 

In sharing what I have about myself, I do not seek for pity or to brag. I seek only to present my readers with an opportunity to believe that I am able to relate to and appreciate at least some of the struggles experienced by those members of our society who feel like they are destined to live from paycheck to paycheck. 

I also believe I can relate to those who still dare to dream of the day when they can finally have the personal and family dignity of no longer being dependent upon any form of public assistance, with its accompanied requirement of having to answer to a case worker who seems to always be trying to learn more about, and control more of someone’s personal and family life than they are really comfortable with.