As he grew older, Sam would develop a massive respect for his mother and the kind of person she was. Never once did she complain about the work she had to do. She never lost her cool when dealing with two entirely rambunctious boys who thought "fun" consisted of jumping out of trees and hitting each other with plastic swords. It was a miracle any of them made it to adolescence, really. By the time Sam was ten years old, they had moved to three different states, and had settled in Virginia. He was pretty used to moving around a lot, and it didn't phase Sam in the slightest. It was just what had become the norm to his childhood. A new school became a new adventure, and while he was slightly introverted, it didn't mean that he shied away from making new friends; it just took him a little longer.
Sam was twelve years old when he and his father were driving home on a particularly rainy night. The rainfall was coming down in sheets, and it was unrelenting. Sam would remember arguing with his dad about something, but never remember exactly what. Something inane, unimportant. His dad swerved too late to avoid hitting something that had fallen into the road in the storm, and ended up flipping the car. Charles Sommers died on impact, where Sam was knocked unconscious and losing a lot of blood. He would remember none of the ordeal, and nothing from the two weeks he lay in a hospital bed, unconscious as the swelling in his brain went down. When he woke up, his father was buried and his family was moving to a new place. It's hard to describe the way Sam felt in those weeks of so much change, but he decided overall that he was just going to channel everything in him as best as he could. He was the man of the family now; he couldn't let the devastating loss cripple him.
The way that Sam idolized his father didn't go away even after he died. Sam knew that he needed to go to college, but he felt an unflinching desire to go into the military to follow his father's footsteps. He joined the ROTC while pursing a degree in History from Boston University. His family had been living in Connecticut where his mother's family was from, and it just made sense for him to stay on the East coast for school. As soon as he was handed his diploma, he was suiting up into his Army fatigues and entering active duty as a Second Lieutenant in the US Army. For the next eight years, Sam would go on three tours with the Army, and earn the title of Staff Sergeant.
Time came for Sam to decide if he wanted to continue as a military man and make a life of it as his father had, or take a different direction. It was perhaps one of the hardest decisions he'd made in his life, but in the end he knew that his heart was not in being a career soldier. He had served his country for eight years, and he felt great about the work that he had done. Upon leaving the military, Sam decided that what he wanted to do with the rest of his life was teaching. It seemed like the most natural thing for him to do, and something that once again gave him a sense of purpose. His years spent in service had been harrowing to say the least, and there was a lot of catharsis in teaching the high school students who came into his classroom. That seemed to help keep his head on straight ... for the most part.
In the seven years since he's left the military, Sam has found his stride with teaching, and living a life in Boston without moving around, or feeling the constant need to be doing something more with his day to day.