It’s a big decision that very few people make, enlisting in the military. Maybe you’ve thought about it and decided against it, or maybe it never crossed your mind. Perhaps you have family members or loved ones who’ve served or are serving? And even if you don’t? I think you’ll be interested in learning the tiniest bit about what it’s like to choose the path that almost no-one else does. 

Enlistment isn’t easy, but what career path is? It involves early mornings (when I say early? I mean early), brutal training, tests of physical and mental strength, immense change and a family that’ll stay with you forever. The official Marine Corps website states that becoming a Marine is, “Finding purpose and your place in a common cause. What you truly long for is discovered by fighting for it. This is where the battle begins.” Every person has a different goal in mind when choosing to enlist, but the joint goal of actually graduating from boot camp unites individuals to the point of having considering their fellow recruits a family.

 So what can you do to prepare? Well, as any military member will tell you, there’s truly nothing you can do to ever be fully prepared for basic training or boot camp. Speaking for myself, I’ve actually gotten a lot more experience than many recruits that end up going into boot (boot camp, I’ll refer to it as boot moving forward). I’ve gone to dozens of military events by now, since I’ve been contracted for over a year now, and many of these events have involved drill instructors yelling at me and basically giving me and the other poolees (what Marine Corps enlistees are called) a taste of what boot is like. My personal favorite event so far, was an overnight pool-function where me and about 40 other poolees were driven to an Army base, and we experienced a few days living in the barracks, marching to chow (meal times), and the overall training & drill that will occur during boot.

You’re probably wondering what led me to my decision of enlisting in the most difficult branch, and as a woman on top of that. And honestly? My tio (uncle en español) Ramon is my original biggest inspiration for enlisting in the Corps. At around 8 years old, I was able to take a road trip to Parris Island, South Carolina to see my tio graduate from Marine Corps boot camp. This experience was eye-opening for me, and I didn’t expect it to impact me so much back then. Seeing someone who I’d lived with on multiple occasions when times were tough, and being able to see how much it changed him was so inspiring to me as a kid. It drove me and in around 8th grade, I began to realize that, “Wow, I can actually do that?” And I did, years later I talked to my recruiter in my Sophomore year of high school, and turned that small dream I had as a child, into a reality.

Enlisting isn’t the only option out there, but it is one of the many that can be frowned upon, and will have people questioning you as to ‘why’? This shouldn’t discourage you from the path you want for yourself, and as you can see, once us young 18 year olds actually go through with the enlistment process and proudly become a part of the service, now people are thanking you for your service and commemorating you, even though they might’ve been the same people who talked down on you when you first made that choice.

So don’t let people decide your future for you. If you want to choose the less-walked path? DO IT! Who knows? You might find yourself in a much happier place, where you’re at peace with yourself. And at that point? Those people that doubted you won’t matter one bit.