Guest: Jamel Herring, Marine, Olympian, Professional Boxer
What up Get Up Nation! My name is Ben Biddick, the Host of The Get Up Nation Podcast and the Co-Author of Get Up: The Art of Perseverance with former Major League Baseball player and CEO of www.lurongliving.com, Adam Greenberg. Resilience is defined as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.” After researching Jamel Herring, an American professional boxer who is known in the ring as “Semper Fi,” Jamel clearly is a portrait of resiliency. Stephen Brown, the close friend who encouraged Jamel to do something significant with his life, died of lung cancer after facilitating Jamel’s enlistment in the United States Marine Corps. Just prior to Jamel’s first deployment to Iraq, he grieved being unable to see Stephen before his passing. Jamel surrounded himself with a phenomenal team of Marines that helped him bear the stresses associated with arresting improvised explosive device makers while under the threat of insurgent snipers. Even while meeting the demands of his duty, he still found time to train, and in the desert sun boxed and competed to earn a spot on the All-Marine Corps boxing team.
Jamel became a father. The joys of fatherhood were paralleled with the heavy burden of knowing he was going back into a combat zone for his second deployment. Jamel survived the second deployment and returned to meet the newborn son he’d never met. Soon after, a daughter named Ariyanah was also born. Her glorious and brief life ended as a result of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. As Jamel reeled from the loss of his daughter, he honored her spirit by digging even deeper and moving forward with his boxing career. He overcame more seasoned opposition and earned a slot on the 2012 American Olympic Boxing Team. Since then he completed his military service and became a professional boxer. He is currently training in preparation for his next fight scheduled for April 14, 2018 at Madison Square Garden.
Jamel thank you for taking time out to speak on the Get Up Nation Podcast!
