So the other day I mentioned in a post that I wanted to be in the military, then noted "that's a different story for a different post." Well, I thought I would share that story with you.
When I was a senior in high school, I decided that I wanted to be in the military. I went to talk to a National Guard recruiter (much to my parents' disapproval), I took the ASVAB, the whole bit. Then, after deciding that Air Force was the route I wanted to go, I joined the Air Force ROTC program at UNT.
I was in ROTC for almost three semesters, and boy, was that an interesting ride. Not a bad one, mind you, but definitely interesting. I wanted to be an intelligence officer, which is honestly the only job I could probably get that would use my linguistics degree, and even then I'm not sure how much of that knowledge would have actually been used.
For those of you who aren't familiar with how ROTC works, you're not legally obligated to serve in the military until after your second year (or your first for some, but I'll get to that in a bit), after you come back from Field Training. Field Training is basically a condensed version of basic training/boot camp/whatever you want to call it, and when you finish that you get to sign the papers and take the oath and all of that fun stuff. Obviously I didn't make it that far.
Anyway, the first semester I was classified as a 250, which basically means I was going to be completing the four-year program in three years (that's where the first year Field Training thing comes in). As a 250, you learn the material from the first and second years of the program at once. I was definitely overwhelmed that first semester, and my second semester I chose to drop down to a 100 (freshman-level cadet). During that second semester of my ROTC experience, I was in the best shape of my life, without a doubt.
When the fall of my second year of college rolled around, I was classified as a 200 (sophomore-level cadet) because I had already "completed" the first semester of the first year of the program when I was a 250. By that time, I had learned to dread Thursdays, and to not like Tuesdays much either. Tuesday and Thursday were PT days, and I preferred to get the physical activity out of the way as early as possible so I went to the morning PT sessions (which ran from 6:50 AM to 7:50 AM).
I didn't mind the people so much, but ROTC was just wearing me down. I didn't enjoy it anymore, I admitted to myself that I was only in it for the prospective job security (which as we all know isn't as secure anymore), I hated going to bed on Monday and Wednesday nights because that meant I had to wake up on a Tuesday or Thursday. I was very stressed as it was, and ROTC didn't help that. I had gotten "lucky" (?) and had fractured my elbow just before school began so I wasn't able to do PT, but since I didn't do any PT on my own either I was in pretty bad shape.
So, a little less than halfway through my third semester, I decided to quit. I was not looking forward to being so behind everyone else physically, I wasn't interested mentally, and I felt like I would be so much more useful somewhere else. I hated to quit, but the Lieutenant Colonel who runs the detachment was very understanding and very sad. Apparently I was ranked in the top three cadets in my class (who knew!). He hated to see me go, but he understood that if I wasn't happy, I didn't need to be there.
Since I quit ROTC, I'm a lot happier, although I'm not any less busy. I feel like now I'm on my way to becoming who I'm supposed to be, and doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Will I end up in the military someday? Who knows? I'm definitely not ruling out any possibilities, but I'm not holding my breath either.
Love Always,
Kristin
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