While Markeiz Ryan, 36, was a senior airman in the U.S. Air Force, he took a trip to Vietnam that would set him off on a new journey — he just didn’t know it yet.
At the time, Ryan admits, he was feeling down after having gotten in trouble for breaking his curfew. He lost out on several months of pay, was restricted to his military base and demoted from staff sergeant to senior airman.
“After this, I was very depressed and very sad,” Ryan tells CNBC Make It. “But that depression and sadness make you think about where your life is going and it makes you redirect your life into the right direction.”
″[Vietnam] just looked like so much fun and it really lived up to all the hype,” he said. “I ended up having the best time of my life, and that depression was [just] gone.”
Ryan says he didn’t want to let go of the good feelings he had on that trip, so when he got home he almost immediately started planning his return to the country.
