Edward Clark had known what he wanted to do from the time he was young.
He wanted to join the U.S. Navy. He wanted to work with engines. And at 17, with his parents’ permission, he enlisted and began pursuing a goal that would eventually take him through the demanding Naval Nuclear Power Program and onto the USS Carl Vinson.
Clark became a naval nuclear operator, working with electrical distribution equipment aboard the aircraft carrier. He also took on responsibilities ranging from firefighting to hazardous materials response and served in leadership roles alongside people from different backgrounds and experiences.
The work taught him technical skills. But some of the lessons that stayed with him most were about people, adaptability and learning how to move forward when circumstances change.
“One of the biggest things I've learned is how to manage people,” Clark said.
He also learned to pivot.
That lesson would become especially important when his Navy career ended and the future he had envisioned for himself began to change.
Clark returned to college with experience, curiosity and a willingness to explore what might come next. MiraCosta College was close to home, but what appealed to him was also the opportunity for a more personal educational experience. At first, he considered following his military experience into electrical engineering. Then he explored psychology. Eventually, his interest in fitness, nutrition and well-being led him toward dietetics.
“I want to help people learn how to have healthy, happy relationships with food, specifically military,” Clark said.
His goal is to eventually become a dietitian and use what he learns to help others, including members of the military and veteran communities, develop healthy and sustainable relationships with food and wellness.
Exploration, for Clark, has been part of the process.
At MiraCosta, his counselor helped him consider different possibilities and understand the educational paths connected to them. Clark credits her willingness to listen and adapt alongside him as he has refined his goals. The Veterans Center has provided another important connection. As vice president of the Veterans Club, Clark has found a community of people who understand many of the experiences that come with moving from military service into college life.
“To understand you're not alone in all this and like it's a shared experience, I guess, is the biggest part. So just not feeling isolated in all this is nice,” he said.
But Clark’s life outside the classroom reveals another side of his story.
He and his mother have become deeply involved in Día de los Muertos celebrations, creating elaborate Catrina and Catrín costumes and participating in events throughout Southern California. What began as an interest his mother introduced to the family grew into something they now create together.
For the past several years, the pair have designed detailed costumes by hand, from decorative crowns to elaborate clothing and accessories. Their work has been recognized at events and has grown into a partnership with Old Town San Diego, where some of their creations have been displayed.
For Clark, the experience brings together creativity, culture, family and connection.
It is also fitting that so much of the work centers on remembrance.
When Clark talks about his own purpose, he thinks about people who are no longer here. Several friends from his military years passed after he left the service. Their loss changed the way he thought about the time he had been given.
“But I realized I was still here,” Clark said.
That realization became part of a larger shift. The career he once imagined for himself had changed. So had other parts of his life. Rather than measuring his future against the path he once expected to follow, Clark began thinking about what he could build next.
And there is someone in particular he hopes is watching.
Clark is the father of an 8-year-old son.
“I want my son to be proud,” he said. He wants his son to see that a life can change direction without losing its purpose, that a new dream can emerge when an old one no longer fits. “I want my son to say, wow. Something happened in his life and he had a pivot and he found a new dream. He found a new thing, a new life and is moving forward. I just want to show resilience and that.”
That idea connects the many parts of Clark’s life: the discipline he developed in the Navy, the career he is building through education, his commitment to wellness, his connection to the veteran community, the traditions he shares with his mother and the example he hopes to set for his son.
“And that's my why. I just want to prove to myself and to others you can be resilient regardless of the situations you're put in.”
For Clark, moving forward has not meant leaving one life behind.
It has meant carrying its lessons with him, and using them to build the next one.