Leaving a legacy

I started out just trying to make a difference, working hard and helping others, especially women and veterans who have endured traumatic experiences. My efforts have become much more: a legacy.

I used to think that only those with millions of dollars were the ones who left legacies, had their names placed on buildings, schools, roads. As I’ve gotten older, I realize just how wrong this line of thinking was. This Women’s History Month finds me in a reflective mood, as I consider what my legacy will be. All of us will leave a legacy; it is up to us what that will be. Will it be a positive or a negative one? Will it be personal, professional, or both? How does one intentionally leave a legacy that impacts others in positive ways?

Most of us will leave a personal legacy for the generations that follow us in our families. I know that I will. My son and grandchildren will continue the culture, customs, and foods of my family heritage. This will outlast me as they carry on with family gatherings and enjoy the foods of my Latina culture, such as homemade tortillas, tamales, carne guisada, and salsa. I continue to try to teach them the many life lessons I have learned. One must leave the next generation or, in my case, the next two generations with the tools to be successful and never to forget where they came from. I strive each day to be worthy of my most important roles as a mother and grandmother.

Professionally, I set a tough pace with my work ethic as a military officer, Bronze Star-decorated combat veteran, commander, higher education professional, entrepreneur, founder, author, and poet. I refer to myself as a reformed workaholic who sometimes relapses. Admittedly it is hard for me; I am an extremely driven woman. But I strive to find that balance, and recently I have been able to find that special space that allows me to lead a fuller and more authentic life.

My work centers around helping others, especially women and veterans who have endured traumatic experiences. I want to share the wisdom and healing I’ve learned with as many as I can. I suffered climbing the ranks, endured sexual harassment, sexual assault, gender and ethnic discrimination, and misogyny. Why should they suffer? I do not believe that one must pay one’s dues as I did. As the saying goes, I lifted others as I climbed, and now I pull others up so they too can enjoy a fulfilling, successful life.

I’ve mentored many men and women throughout my careers in the military, higher education, and entrepreneurship. For a long time, they would typically reach out to me only when they needed help and guidance in a particular demanding situation. Now they reach out to let me know of a promotion or other important career milestone and of the joys they’ve found in their personal lives. One mentee contacted me every time he was promoted and thanked me for taking a chance with him and sharing my leadership philosophy with him. He says he puts it up in his office wherever he is located and refers to it as needed. Several individuals in higher education referred to my leadership expertise as The School of Firmin (TSOF) and proudly declare themselves graduates. There are at least two distinguished graduates of TSOF out there with PhDs. That they happen to be veterans, Marines, is even better. The many lives one impacts positively is another example of leaving a legacy.

I serve on national, regional, and state-level boards. Why? Because I am still giving back, making a difference, wanting to help others on their journeys. I try to use my gifts to make transformational changes as I did as the founder of The University of Texas at San Antonio’s Veteran and Military Affairs Department and the UTSA Top Scholar program. And as I am doing as the founder of my own business, Carrington Firmin LLC, and with my recent Latina Warrior™ trademark.

It was my absolute privilege to set up an endowment, the Colonel Lisa Carrington Firmin Scholarship at my alma mater, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, for military-affiliated first generation students. This is important to me as I was exactly that when I attended. A college degree changed my life. I want to help others earn their college degrees and see the trajectory of their lives being impacted positively, just as mine was.

My books will certainly outlive me. I believe strongly that I’ve contributed to the dialogue on military sexual assault and how one can heal from PTSD, military sexual trauma (MST), and combat-related trauma. The two books I have published, Stories from the Front: Pain, Betrayal, and Resilience on the MST Battlefield and Latina Warrior, along with all my other publications, are another example of leaving a legacy. I own my narrative and document it for the historical record, alongside the many stories I’ve written of others’ journeys.

I am now working on my third book, about veteran entrepreneurs. I’m blessed to have met so many veteran innovators and founders with powerful stories, who are allowing me the privilege of writing and sharing their entrepreneurial journeys. Ethan Casey of Blue Ear Books and I have partnered to create the Veteran Book Initiative to help veterans write and publish their stories. That is an endeavor that will live on forever in the works that will be published and introduced into the world.

Shield of Sisters is an organization that advocates, supports, and provides programming for military sexual assault survivors. I was humbled beyond words when I was honored with a legacy Pioneer award in my name at their inaugural MST conference in 2025. The Shield of Sisters Lisa Carrington Firmin Pioneer Award will be presented annually to others who are making a difference and leading the way in the prevention of MST.

By now you can see a pattern in my professional life. The reformed workaholic in me struggles some days to throttle back, as there is still much to do. I want my life to have mattered, to be worthy of all my blessings and my place on this planet.

So how does one intentionally leave a legacy that impacts others in positive ways? By living a life that puts others first both personally and professionally, by doing the right thing even when no one else is around, by taking the tough road not the easy one, by mentoring the generations that follow, by never giving up, by believing in yourself even when others don’t, and by your words and actions. Right now, I have at least two more books, plus a few poems and articles, dancing around in my head besides the one I’m currently working on.

I did not start out trying to leave a legacy. I started out just trying to make a difference, working hard and helping others. What an epiphany to learn that by living my life in such a way, I have amassed a positive powerful legacy, one of which I am immensely proud. How about you? What type of legacy are you leaving behind?

Lisa Carrington Firmin is an award-winning author of Stories from the Front: Pain, Betrayal, and Resilience on the MST Battlefield and the unique prose, poem and art autobiography Latina Warrior. Lisa is a combat veteran, writer, poet, entrepreneur, founder of Carrington Firmin LLC, and co-editor of the Blue Ear Books Veteran Book Initiative.