Joining The Army

The decision to join the Army was not an easy one. No way. In fact, the circumstances leading to my joining were rather bizarre.

I had always dinked around with the notion of joining the military, ever since I started High School. At first, I thought mainly about the Air Force because I wanted to fly jets. I also thought about the Marines, just because they sounded cool. I even talked to the recruiters and everything whenever they came by the school. But I was never really serious about joining any branch of the military.

Probably because my parents were so dead set against it.

Well, the notions came and went, and I really wasn't serious about anything. The summer of '99 led to my recruitment however.

It all started with graduation. What in the world do I do now? It was about that time when I said, "hey, this email thing is pretty cool." I didn't use the internet really ever before that. But boredom led to its discovery.

I am getting somewhere with this.

Later in the summer, around July, my dad started pushing the issue of a summer job. And to get off the blasted computer (which, at this point, I was seriously hooked). So, I got a job.

The job was ok, it paid good and all, but it wasn't my dream job. I worked it anyway.

And then collage started. Here I was, no life, just collage, work, and the computer. I really didn't have much of a social life, I wasn't extremely happy. I needed a break.

Well, around the middle of October, I was looking for a costume for halloween. I wanted a cool costume, to really get dressed up and go all out this year. Don't ask me why, I just did. So I went to the local display house to try on costumes when low and behold, two US Army Recruiters were wandering the place. One of them (a particularly outgoing person who talks to just about everybody I later learned) just started chit-chatting with me.

When somebody starts talking to me, no matter how psycho they are, I usually talk back. If I don't like them, I'll edge out of the conversation.

The Recruiter didn't let me edge out, and kept talking to me. He told me how cool the reserves are and all, and I'm thinking, "hmm, ok, this doesn't sound so bad." And so he invites me to lunch the following day to talk more about it.

I agreed.

So, the following day, I show up at the recruiting office at the prescheduled time, and he doesn't show up. One of the other recruitors (they are so laid back it's unnerving when you get out of basic) called him up and told him I was waiting.

He presumed I would just stand him up on his offer, so he hadn't bothered to show up.

So, upon coming back to chit chat with me, he took me to pizza hut and treated me to lunch, meanwhile telling me the glories and splendors (and all the mulah) the Army had in store for me. I thought "Cool!"

But I was still sceptical. I wasn't ready to join up yet.

Actually, it took me about a month, and i didn't talk to my parents about it for a couple weeks. I knew what they would say.

"HELL NO!"

But that's them. This was me. I was eighteen, and i seriously needed a break. My family was starting to get on my nerves, and so, I laid out a careful list of why I wanted to join the army. And I weighed the "why i should join" reasons with the "why i shouldn't".

I decided I should.

My parents pleaded with me, so I was semi reluctant to join up. They are my parents afterall, and this was a big decision i was making on my part. But really, they were the only ones standing in my way.

I scored well on the ASVAB and had pretty much the pickings of any MOS available (except Combat, being female and all)

And so I sat down and really thought about it. The reasons i came up with were. . .

• Money. The Reserves offered lots of it.
  
• Adventure. The whole prospect of Basic Training sounded exciting! I was up for it!
  
• Freedom, a way to get out of my very boring life at the time. There was no excitement, and I was desperate for a way out of the house.
  
• My family, which, at the time, was driving me insane. I love them, but I really needed a break, and i couldn't afford to move out at the time.
  
• The prospect of Traveling. I had never been east of Colorado, and Basic took me (note sarcasm) all the way to Missouri where I could spend a bitter cold winter. But AIT sounded cool! It was in San Antonio!
  
• Love of Country? Ok, so Bill Clinton was President and I would be forced to refer to him as "commander and Chief" or the "big boss" if you will. That thought still makes me want to hurl. But really, I do love my country, and I wanted to show my pride for it.
  
• Discipline. I needed lots of it. Mostly, in the area of cleanliness which coincides with "room".
  
• Guns! Big Guns! I wanted to shoot Big Guns!
  
• Hummers. Way Cool!
  
• Get my flabby body in shape? Ok, I thought I was bad, but you should have seen some of the people I went to basic with! I found out I was one of the most athletic ones there! (out of females that is) Now that's sad!
  
• Test myself. Yeah, I wanted a challange, I wanted to take myself somewhere and see how much i could take.
  
• Turn my parent's hair grey. Ok, I didn't want to do this, but that's how they reacted. They did NOT want me joining. I guess it was my own way of rebelling, since I was not a rebellious child. You know, this was one of the main reasons of joining. I was rebelling, something I generally don't do.
  

Well, those are some of the reasons I joined. Believe it or not, there were actually more then that. I kept coming up with them, and it was something that I wanted so badly, that I did it.

It broke my parents heart. They are greatful, however, that I only went reserves. They wanted to scream when I thought about going active (which I still consider.)

But it did take me a month from first talking to the recruiter till I actually placed that pen on the dotted line. Everyone told me not to do it, everyone was against me on this decision, I had zero support from any family, and I did it! That decision turned out to be one of the hardest things I ever did on my own!

And I have never regretted it!

Ok, maybe a couple of times.