"For what it's worth; it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again." -F. Scott Fitzgerald
In the fall of 2012, this quote found me at the perfect time. It was my senior year of high school, and the biggest question of my high school career arose; what would I do after graduation? I started my senior year with so many different ideas. I spent countless hours reading about majors, colleges, and job descriptions. I knew I could be anything I wanted to be. It was exciting.
At school I heard about this field trip to a college fair at UW Oshkosh, so I signed myself up. When the day arrived, I was anxious to see what colleges would have booths set up. As I walked around with my friends and talked to representatives, not too much stood out to me. Did I really want to go to college when I still had no idea who or what I wanted to be? Or so I could just waste money earning a major I might not even want? How are you supposed to know the answers when you're only 18 and have lived in a small town your whole life? I wanted to see the world first, to experience things that make you think deeper about life, and ultimately find who I am and what I want to do.
Only one representative at that college fair stood out to me, an army recruiter. I had no intention of talking to this recruiter, I just wanted to pick up a pamphlet for my friend who was interested. As I looked at the pamphlets the recruiter engaged me in conversation. He asked if I was really interested in the military. I laughed and quickly stated that I was only looking at his booth for my friend's sake. He asked if I ever thought about it. I laughed again, and joked that I wasn't tough enough. He began to explain to me that jobs in the military aren't all about the hard grunt work and combat. I never thought of it any other way. It made sense though. You always see the intense commercials of soldiers fighting for our freedom. You never think of the noncombat jobs, the jobs in maintenance, health, or the so called "regular office jobs". This intrigued me, but I still scoffed at the thought of me, a little 5'3" blonde (who was involved in dance and show choir), joining the military.
I went home that day and poured into the countless military websites. I looked at the jobs each branch had to offer, and was delightfully surprised. They even had a Mass Communications Specialist job! And if you know me, then you know how much I love pictures and photojournalism! How great of a job that would be, to travel the world and take pictures?! I had to look deeper into it, so I decided to talk to an Air Force recruiter.
I went into the recruiting station, and was so confused. My parents told me not to make any decisions or sign anything while I was there, so I didn't. The recruiter didn't seem very interested in explaining things to me, so I left that day even more confused about how this whole process worked. It didn't feel like the military was the right choice for me, until my friend who was joining the Navy got me in contact with his recruiter. I set up an appointment to talk to them at the recruiting station. I walked in there, and before leaving the office that day, I knew I wanted to join the Navy. I broke the news to my parents, but I don't think they really believed me.
A few weeks later, I was headed down to Milwaukee to go to MEPS (Military Entrance Program) to take the ASVAB, go through a medical screening, pick a job in the Navy, sign my contract, and swear in to the United States Navy! On November 9th, 2012 I had officially sworn into the world's greatest Navy. I left MEPS with a contract as an Aviation Machinist Mate (AD), but was going to wait for an Aircrew position to open up and then change my rate to FTS (Full Time Support) Naval Aircrewman (AW).
About two months later, after waiting for a clearance, I signed my new aircrew contract and was assigned my ship date; August 20th, 2013. I graduated high school in May of 2013, and was looking forward to leave in August. I was reading more and more about what it meant to be a Naval Aircrewman and I was getting so excited to just get it started! At the end of June, my recruiter got ahold of me and asked if I would like to change my FTS aircrew contract to an active duty contract. I told him yes, but only if that meant I got to keep my aircrew rate. There was only one catch, I would no longer be leaving in August, but my leave date would be pushed back to November 20th, 2013. I decided that was okay. So a few days later, I went back down to MEPS and signed my active duty aircrew contract.
On November 20th, 2013... after a year and 11 days of waiting in DEP (Delayed Entry Program), it was finally my time to ship out for boot camp.
