The alarm rang and it was time to get up. It was nearly 10 pm, and I sleep in pretty much every weekend unless there's something I have to do. Those extra hours of sleep are made up during the weekend because during the week, I usually get less than 8 hours of sleep because I'm always up late doing homework or doing something. I hopped into the shower and took longer than usual because I had many things on my mind. First of all, as stated in the previous post there's some news that I told to my grandpa and little sister.......I'll save that for later.
Things have been getting progressively worse at home involving my mom's boyfriend behavior. There is much that I can say, but there's no physical abuse going on. Just verbal abuse towards my little sisters for obnoxious things and other issues. He is basically a bum now because he just got laid off of work about a month ago so he's been sitting around at home. He drinks A LOT, like every other day from what it seems and the problem is that he invites his friends over and they don't leave til night time. Not the exact environment you want children to be around, but I encourage and actually force my sisters and my grandpa's daughter to play elsewhere - away from all the drunken people. He doesn't clean after himself and complains about me to my mom. I can say many more things but that won't change the situation. My mom sides with him as always, but it's starting to become a real pain seeing him because I can feel him looking at me whenever I'm around like I'm a stranger in my own house.
School, first semester I did not do too hot. I was depressed and that got the most out of me because of the break up. It's really dumb that I let my emotions take over my school work, but at that time I hadn't experienced such heartbreak and emotional pain, it was the first. The first always hurts and that made my grades plummet. To what extent you ask, well it would severely limit my ability to get accepted to nursing school. I even asked my academic counselor if it was possible to wipe out those grades and turn them into "Withdrawal" grades but that didn't go through. Second semester, I am doing well and I am sure I will mostly get all "A's" and "B's.", but even with those grades it would not be enough to keep me in the college next Fall. The college that I am attending has strict GPA requirements for students. I wish there was a way I could go back and undo the things I did, like let myself feel depressed for so long but what's said is done. I can't get accepted to Nursing school (it's a given fact), and I'm getting booted out of college next Fall due to my grades first semester.. tough luck I say, but I have resorted to Plan B. And that is the military.
My family does not know of my grades and I'm not planning on to tell them because it would be a disgrace. I've told my grandpa that I'll be enlisting soon and he neither pestered or promoted my decisions because he told me that he would best see me staying in college (but he doesn't know about my grades). He served in the Vietnam Air Force back in the days as a high ranking official and based on his experience, he has a bias towards joining the military because of his very own experiences. He's told me that he's seen many horrible things, and it's true that when you are in the military you are risk for getting injured or perhaps even killed. He said it will be tough for me, and for me to think it through and I have. I've done research and read many forums and first hand encounters about the military and they all point to the same thing: The military isn't for everyone.
I do know that I am joining at this time will be a risky decision because my life is on the line. I know that the pay isn't that great, and certainly people who join the military aren't there for the pay because you get around less than the teacher's salary. When you calculate the costs of living the civilian life, having to pay the basic ulitity bills like gas, water, electric, and not to mention - mortgage the military seems to make up for that. They do provide basic living quarters, but the benefits or pay is not my reason for joining. I actually want to serve my country and I've heard stories of ordinary young future soldier's like me "growing up" after BMT (basic military training - or boot camp). It's obvious that there are disadvantages, but I know that I'll be serving the country I love and if I have to give up my life, then I will be glad it was for the country and people I love.
"Service before self." is a universal motto for all the branches of the military and I do agree that there are some people in the military for the wrong reasons. I understand that I will be committing a large deal of my life to the military, but my plan is to score high on the ASVAB, which is a test determined to see which jobs you are qualified for and hopefully do something along the lines of health care (aiming for radiography). How this will help my future you ask? Well, I'll hopefully get into something that is matched up with the civilian sector of things so that after serving active duty, I can use my GI bill to attend college. The thing is that you usually have to serve your active duty time, which is about 6 years I heard before you can touch your GI bill. If the military is going great for me, then I might consider staying all 20 years and then retiring in my 30's. I'll be able to use my GI bill while sitting on a nice retirement pension, and on top of that 4 years of schooling and then having a degree, hopefully in radiography/sonography will bring me far. This is a more of a long term goal from what I see. When people are in the military, they usually don't spend as much because the basic needs are provided by the military. I'm not sure how long the enlistment contracts are, but I will be speaking to a recruiter next week. For which branch I will be joining, I'm not sure about that but I have my eyes set on the Air Force. The AF has high requirements, and I'm a bit on a slim side, and kinda underweight so I'm not sure if they could even consider me since they are "overmanned." I could get a waiver for my underweightness (is that even a word?) in the AF, but they would rather do less work and would probably consider a qualified applicant over me. But if that doesn't work out, then the Army will be the way to go. I also thought about the Navy, but I'm not too sure about it. I guess I'll be exploring different branches, but Marines and Coast guard is a no.
I'll update my progress as I go along with the enlistment process.
Anthony
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