Who Do You Want To Be?

When you're in the military, although you are constantly surrounded by people, you end up being alone with your thoughts quite frequently. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I end up thinking about everything. I think about it in depth. I don't just scratch the surface but I think a thought until I scratch all the way down to the core of that thought that I think. 

For the past couple days, I've been thinking about a question that you get asked from the moment you can string words into a sentence: What do you want to be when you grow up? Don't ask why, I just have been. 

It's funny how often I got asked that question.  I'm sure it was no more or less than any other kid. My answers have changed a lot since the first time I was asked that question. I've gone from wanting to be a teacher, to wanting to be a dancer, to wanting to be a writer, to wanting to be a police officer, to wanting to be a Marine to actually becoming a Soldier. 

Now that I am "grown up" and I have become something, I think it's about time to become...someone. You get asked all the time what you want to be. It's as if what your profession has to define the kind of person you are. I want to people to want to know who I am instead of what. 

I'm pretty sure that this experience is helping me to find that out. I've been through a lot in my 19 (almost 20!) years and I'm only going to go through a whole lot more. It's hard to be away from my home. I feel like I'm missing out on so much and it's going to take a toll on me but I'm trying to take good things out of it and become a better person every day. 

And on a side note...there are only 19 days until I turn 20! 

Got My Heart A Racin'

First, I would like to apologize for my lack of posts. I'm so busy and the internet is about as fast as snail mail...It's quite frustrating. Don't be surprised if my posts aren't quite as pretty as usual. All the sites I use to format are too high-speed for the net connection here...so for a while, my posts might be lacking in the pizzazz department, but I'll do my best!

(Edit: I finally managed to make a little picture for this weekly post! Yay!)

As I mentioned last Monday, each week, I'll be sharing a few things about my basic training experience. Today, I've decided to share my favorite training events! We were lucky enough to have a Facebook page that had pictures and stuff so our families ( and now you!) can see what it was like. It's really cool.

Without further ado, I give you...

The Top 5 Best Training Events

5. Basic Rifle Marksmanship (BRM) and Advanced Rifle Marksmanship (ARM)

I didn't know how much I liked shooting until Basic. It was so fun. We ended up doing tons of shooting by the time we graduated and it was really cool to get some solid fundamentals of shooting. I think I will definitely keep up with it and work on it in the civilian world to qualify expert eventually!

4. Grenades

Have you even thrown a grenade? yeah...probably not. It's probably one of the most exciting things I've done so far. Pulling out all the safeties and chucking a little exploding ball out in front of you...it's kind of exhilarating! The boom shook my soul...It was...amazing!

3. The Final PFT 

That's our final fitness test. I was so motivated for this thing, I did so well! My first PT test I didn't do very well. I ran a 185 PFT...I didn't even pass everything! I couldn't believe it. So when it came time to do my final PFT I was really hoping to do well. I had worked hard on my own and wanted it to show. Well, it definitely showed! I ran 2 miles in 15 minutes and 7 seconds, I did 28 push-ups (over doubling my first score) and 69 push ups. I MAXED my run and did over 75 points in the other two events. I was so proud of it that the dang PFT became one of the high lights of my experience. 

2. Treadwell Tower 

Treadwell Tower is a rappelling training event with a rope course deally attached to it. When we came up on this tower...I wanted to pass out. It was our first actual day of training and I almost peed my pants at the top of the 40 foot tower and on the rope course that we did, but once I completed it, I felt so awesome and confident, which was probably the point. 

That picture is even me! Woo!

1. The 16k!

The 16k is often dreaded by young privates like myself, but I was so pumped for it. We ended up practically having to skip our final big training exercise because of lightening storms and a ridiculous down pour that happened that whole week, so we got a good night's rest before we headed out. I was so excited and proud to be so close to the finishing point of BCT that I barely even felt the pain. When we finished, I had big old blisters between my toes.  My wrist was sore and stiff from carrying my weapon, my back hurt from my ruck...it was painful, but I had no idea until we finished. It felt so good.