Wednesday, January 30, 2008

I have decided

So I have decided that that I'm going to stay for sure. It will be the best thing for me because of a number of different reasons. My Great-grandfather getting sick has opened my eyes a little bit. I realize that I need to stick around for the time being. I don’t want him to pass away while I am in another country. I know that my family would understand if I was gone, but it means a lot to me that I stay. Also my mom and her boyfriend of 8 years just got married. I suspect that the reason they did it so suddenly is because I told them I want to join. And on top of those respectable reasons I can’t forget the ladies. I’m going to miss the college life in that sense. But I’m going to suck it up, and serve my country. So now I feel obligated to stay. So my recruiter is just going to have to wait until I’m ready.

Anyone that wants to learn more about the Corps http://http://www.marines.com/page/usmc.jsp?flashRedirect=true

Monday, January 28, 2008

My Crazy Night

There are some problems that keep proving to be a real nuisance in my journey towards joining the Marine Corps. To start I have a drug offense from when I was a minor which holds me back from enlistment bonuses and certain jobs. Secondly, but more important is that I have an OVI and a use of a vehicle without permission hanging over my head. Those two are the reasons I can’t join tomorrow; because in order to join I have to be off probation, and to be off probation I have to pay off my fines, which are somewhere around $7800. This is the craziest night of my life’s story. Some would say that stealing a car is a bad thing, but I like to think of it as a good thing. During the summer after high school graduation, I slowly developed a drinking problem. Not only did I have a problem with stopping, I black out when I drank because my body doesn’t metabolize alcohol properly.

So with that said one of the many crazy nights my friends and I had, Adam, a kid I grew up with, told me about a party with some people that I don’t really get along with. But being a tough guy and knowing that my friends are tougher than anyone around I foolishly decided to go. Adam decided to drive because I didn’t have any gas so we took his Del Sol. We got to the apartment just in time for a couple of people fighting outside with the rest of the party watching, and some way or another I got sucked into it. So I proved myself because I had a reputation to uphold and I did this without even throwing a punch. I could have let it go and kept walking, but I knew that the kids that I didn’t get along with were watching and if I didn’t want to get beat up by a group of kids, I needed to prove that there was a reason no one messed with me. So I pushed the kid into the bushes in front of the apartment and acted like I was a tough guy, and made him leave the party on the spot. Everyone that watched showed signs of approval by looking and smiling, which cut the hostility in half.

I tried to get along with everyone that night because everyone was drinking and smoking. The living room was fogged out with weed smoke, and everyone was yelling because the music was so loud. Beer cans were scattered though the entire apartment you could that’s all they did was party. I kept running into people that I haven’t seen in a while but eventually made it to the little balcony on the second floor of the town house only to find Adam with a case of beer with him and a bag of weed with two other people out with him. The two people were a guy hitting on some ugly girl that had a bottle of Jose Curevo. After sweet talking her she kindly let me drink some and that’s the last thing I remember from that night. I blacked out and did my usual “shit-talking” about how tough I was, only to trade punches with some kid that missed my arm and hit my ribs and bruised them. It hurt so bad I came out of my black out for a second but fell back into it. From this point on I was told I then started to hit on someone’s girlfriend, which isn’t too hard to believe because I’m like that. But the problem was that it was the kid that owned the apartment and was the ring leader of the kids that already didn’t like me. So I got taken outside by three guys and they are talking about fighting, but won’t fight me because they know would have happened. They would have to deal with a kid that’s like my brother and he is the definition of badass because with it came down to it he would send someone to the hospital for me. So these wimps end up just yelling and calling me every name in the book but never laid a hand on me. They eventually chase me out, and my lame ass friend Adam waits forty-five minutes to look for me, and at this point it’s probably 3:30 am. Adam is an idiot so he just says screw it and goes home not giving me any thought after looking for me for about ten minutes.

At 6:30am the apartment manager of the complex I was partying at finds me in a ravine with a wrecked truck and I’m covered in mud and still drunk. I don’t remember much because I was still that drunk and my vision was blurry so I couldn’t see anything. But I do remember the manager said “you’re going to jail kid” and I asked why he replied “you stole that truck”. I was thinking in my head no way I never do anything like that when I black out. I stood up on the pavement and realized I was missing a shoe. The only thing running in my head was I have to get out of here before the cops come, but I was just too drunk the manger grabs me by the back of the neck and sits me down. I passed out on the curb and waited for the cops only to fail the sobriety field tests with flying colors. I then received a breathalyzer at the police station at 9:45 and blew a .158 BAC. I was sent to jail and sobered up at about 3:30pm. I ended up working up the nerve to call my mother, who was crying her eyes out and already had called a lawyer for me. Mr. Spears my lawyer was able to get me out of the jail the next day on a signature bond because my family is broke and couldn’t afford the $1000 bail.

After that I realized I had a problem, and decided to quit before I killed someone or myself. It is a shame that it took something so drastic to open my eyes, but I’m grateful no one got hurt. And even now a year and a half later I am still paying for it because now I can’t get enlistment bonuses and certain jobs are restricted to me just because a stupid night of partying. But if this didn’t happen to me I would probably still be drinking and I have heard stories about marines getting demoted or even dishonorable discharge for doing dumb things while drunk. So this turned out to be a bitter sweet story because of course it sucks that I have to pay out all of this money and have to be on probation but on the other side I never would have stopping drinking and could have killed someone or myself.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Decisions

So I have been thinking lately about staying in school till summer for a couple of different reasons.

First being that I need to spend some more time with the people that care about me and that don’t want me to leave like my mom and couple of my good friends. My decision to join was a surprise to all of these people. I didn’t tell anyone I was thinking about it, because they would have shot me down early on. I now realize what I’m putting this people through because someone close to me almost broke down and started to cry because I’ll be leaving for good, and not coming back. My other reason isn’t quite as thoughtful.

Second I’m sucking up all of the time I can with girls because in the marines the girl to guy ratio is about 1/6. This is really the only thing that makes me second think the armed forces.

On the subject of armed forces in general, my reply to money maker is not to get the Marines and the Army mixed up. That’s like a slap in the face to anyone that is a Marine, and the Marine that hears you will correct you on the spot. With that said I have respect for anyone that services their country, but I have much more respect for Rangers, Seals, and Marines. For anyone who didn’t know, the main four different branches of armed forces are Air Force, Navy, Army, and Marine Corp but if you want to get technical the Marines is a department of the Navy. The subject of my reputation doesn’t matter because most people that join are people that have no other way out of their crapy little town, so they join the service to be able to amount to something without a college education. And about my leg, if I can’t handle my own training those D.I.s (drill instructors) are going to tear me apart. So I think I will just deal with it till boot camp is over.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Restrictions

I am having a hard time with getting a loan because I just don’t understand too much about the process. I have been looking on the internet and I went to a couple of banks but nothing has been helpful yet. This is a little discouraging but it happens I put myself in this situation so I have to just press through. Maybe someone can give me some direction in this area.
My work out is going smoothly for the most part. I squat 425lbs mind you I only go to a right angle because of bad knees which I never told my recruiter about on purpose (shh later in life the government will pay to fix that). I also picked up a new workout partner it’s a friend of mine that is a soccer player that’s now a little out of shape but should still be able to keep up with me. He is going to come in handy for pushing my times in the three mile run. I’m really looking forward to working out with him.
One problem is my back doesn’t seem like it is as strong as it once was, but I think it is partially because I have been slacking when shoulder and back day rolls around. So for my own good I have to take that day seriously, and not slack if I plan on getting to the perfect PFT

Monday, January 7, 2008

Joining

I have a lot to do before I join for example I have to be off probation which creates a whole new problem. The process of getting off probation includes paying my fines which currently is about $7800 so I'm going to take out a student loan while I'm still a student for $10,000. So I'm stressed about this; who knew it would so hard to join the armed forces. With that said I also have a waiver that holds me back from me doing the jobs that I would like to do like Special Forces. I wanted to be force recon more than anything, but due to my stupidity as a minor I now have to pay the consequences. I also don't receive any incentives such as enlistment bonuses because of the waiver. I really have my mind set on this, even without those things or my parents support.
My workout is broken down a little differently than a normal poolee (a marine recruit waiting for boot camp) might do it. I’m determined to get a perfect 300 on the PFT (physical fitness test). With my major in college being exercise science and being a wanna be body builder I know a thing or two about working out. My work out is for now heavy lifting because I need to be able to do twenty pull ups for a perfect PFT among other things. Also in boot camp a lot a brute strength is needed for things like being able to pick up and fire man carry a fellow recruit and his M16 in the allowed time. I also know that I have some time before I have to condition my body for all of the running. Later in the following months I am going to work myself up to run over ten miles so boot camps eight mile hump will be no problem.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Me

I am a male student at OSU Newark but have recently realized that I want to join the USMC (United States Marine Corps). In the last month I have been conditioning myself for the physical aspect of boot camp and the Marine life style. The mental side I think will be much harder, because it fascinates me to see how far a human can be pushed before giving up, I can’t wait to push myself farther than I have ever been pushed. The people I look up to are oddly enough my ex-girlfriends dad and my friend Joe who are both Marines. Charles my ex-girlfriend’s father is an O-5 Lieutenant Colonel which is a high ranking officer is one hell of a marine and is now in Germany at an Army Base one of six marines to say he got that job is amazing, but now he has been promoted to the Commander of the African Continent which means all of the guards (marines)at the US embassy's he is now in charge of. To get that job he has just received only 18% of the marines that qualify are even looked at so to say he made the cut is remarkable. I have nothing but respect for him and hope one day I can amount to what he is. If you have any interest in the Marines as a civilian or as a poolee this might be something you may want to read