TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A Bay Area man has turned the lessons he learned from life in the military, and then life after the military, into an organization helping veterans called Stairway for Heroes.<\/p>\n
Melvin Azofeifa joined the Navy in 2008 and said he loved the experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hard work. You do the things you need to do. They tell you what you need to do. Volunteering, working,\u201d Azofeifa said, adding that the structure of the Navy allowed him to thrive. \u201cI did well. I made chief in the Navy in less than eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n
But lengthy deployments kept him away from his wife and children, and that wasn\u2019t working for his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t realize the damage it was doing back home,\u201d\u00a0Azofeifa said.<\/p>\n
So, Azofeifa left the Navy. But life after the Navy was difficult. At first, he had a difficult time getting a good job. He said he became so depressed that he considered taking his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI contemplated it,\u201d he said. \u201cI told my wife, ‘Why am I here?’\u201d<\/p>\n
But then Azofeifa started playing golf with a friend and it gave him a new lease of life. He said it was a combination of a fun activity out in the sunshine, and the camaraderie.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned to focus on the right things,” he said. “More focus on what is bringing positivity to my life instead of focusing on things I cannot control.”<\/p>\n
Azofeifa said he started Stairway for Heroes to provide that same benefit for other veterans. Those include lots of golf outings and other monthly activities to get veterans connected with each other. On a recent evening, the group hosted an evening of simulated golf at The Back 9 in Carrollwood<\/a>. <\/p>\n Azofeifa\u00a0 said the vets get to know each other and talk about things only they would understand.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are able to connect right away and understand what a person has gone through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Azofeifa encourages vets to find friends who can help them through life\u2019s struggles.<\/p>\n \u201cFind your lane. Don\u2019t stay home,\u201d he said. \u201cDon\u2019t do what I was doing. Don\u2019t isolate. Don\u2019t, don\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A Bay Area man has turned the lessons he learned from life in the military, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[767,2297,770,2296,28,115,772,2298,135,137,136,835],"class_list":["post-339018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-community","tag-app-everyday-heroes","tag-community-news","tag-everyday-hero","tag-florida","tag-news","tag-on-air-ticker-article","tag-rick-elmhorst","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}