Firstly, let’s just get this point out of the way. It’s true and empirical and fact and that’s all there is to it.

Retired United States Army Sergeant Joey Bozik, 36, a triple amputee who had his legs and an arm amputated after his Humvee rolled over a bomb while working security in Iraq and spent a year recovering at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC, is a badass.

When his maker or Mother Nature or whatever process or higher power you believe in created Bozik, they carved him from something a little tougher, a little more resilient and solid than what they use to form other humans.

But this post isn’t going to take the easy, tired and beaten path that most do with stories like Bozik’s. It’s not going to pit his life, his strength, his struggle against yours and make you feel small or inadequate or soft. Because why compare? Everyone’s journey is unique unto them. It’s relative to one’s own experience.

That’s a pro tip.

And not from us, or anyone living, but from wise, dead voices (military, too) whose words were so damn true that they’re now immortal, and on the internet.

Like the Roman emperor/Stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius:

“How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.”

Or brief militiaman and one of America’s most beloved sage writers, Mark Twain:

“Comparison is the death of joy.”

Rather, the thing you should take from Bozik is something simple. It’s a bit of sense, about life, that can be summed up in three words, and has been, by Robert Frost:

“It goes on.”

As long you’re on this planet, it won’t stop. So you shouldn’t either.

Bozik certainly hasn’t.

“People come up to me and say, ‘Sorry,’ but that’s not the reality of life,” he told the Dallas Morning News. “I don’t think, ‘I would be nice to have legs and go to the grocery store.’ I don’t see obstacles. I see a different way to get the task done.”

The retired soldier didn’t stop when he couldn’t find a sport to suit him, felt his body giving out, and even entertained the belief that he’d never be an athlete again.

Instead, he kept searching, and eventually found his active salvation — Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, aka BJJ — thanks to a fellow veteran.

This from the DMN:

Bozik had been a wrestler and martial artist in his teens. When he took his daughter to train at Tier 1 Training Facility in McKinney, coach Alan Shebaro offered him a chance to return to the athletic world.

Shebaro, a former special forces weapons sergeant, was stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., at the same time as Bozik, although they had never met. The two veterans instantly made a connection.

“Alan asked me if I would be interested in self-defense and BJJ,” Bozik said. “It was just to be able to protect my family.”

Bozik, who doesn’t use prosthetics, took private lessons with Shebaro. At first, Shebaro was puzzled what to do. He came up with eight sheets of potential moves for Bozik to learn. He had to throw out six of them. Some moves didn’t work because one of Bozik’s legs is longer than the other.

“I’ve never trained anyone in the same situation,” Shebaro said. “I told him, ‘If you’re willing to have patience with me, I’ll have patience with you.’ ”

The patience paid off. Bozik moved to regular classes in September. He spars with every student. He’s lost about 15 pounds.

“There was a lot of trepidation at first,” Bozik said. “Once I got to roll around, it was all gone. It’s very cathartic. I spend so much time in the chair. It gives me time to get out.”

Said Jayme: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him as happy.”

Here’s Bozik competing at the IBJJ (International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation) Dallas Open this past fall:

Here’s Joey training, mastering the Brazilian defense discipline a little bit more each day: