Where It All Began

August 2016. The month and year it all started, I had been out of work for several months and was struggling to find a job. I was a 30 year old married man with no kids, but with vehicles and a house to pay for. I refused to move for a job (this is ironic as you will discover later) since friends and family were in the near vicinity. So after a whole lot of thinking and some not so pleasant discussions with the wife, I decided to try the military.

The first obstacle was my age. I knew that physically I probably would not be able to join the Marines or the Army, so that left Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. (Space Force wasn’t a thing at the time.) I will take this moment to offer the first piece of advice to you readers that I wish I had known at the time. If you are considering joining the military, or even if you are already in the service. DO YOUR RESEARCH!

Some of the questions that I wish I had thought to ask myself and the recruiters.

• What do I want out of the military?
• Do I prefer land or sea?
• How often will I be away from home?
• Can you guarantee me the job I am interested in?

Despite the lack of extensive research, I found myself walking into a Navy recruiter’s office. After a 15 minute conversation with the recruiter, I had to do two things: Hop on a scale for my weight to be recorded and take a practice ASVAB. For those of you who do not know, ASVAB stands for Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (the military loves their acronyms.) This brings me to my second piece of advice, study for this test if possible. The test itself is not the best way to gauge knowledge, but your score is extremely important for job selection in the various branches of the military. It probably goes without saying that the higher your score, the better the jobs available to you.

After completing the tasks referenced above, I learned two things about myself. First, I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was, but I was decent at taking a test. Secondly, that I was way heavier than was healthy. The recruiter did not really care about the first one but he sure cared about the second one. His advice was “lose weight and come back when you meet our standards.”

I can’t begin to tell you how disappointed I was when I left the office but I was determined to feed my family and to get my bills paid. What followed was a journey in self discovery and intensity that I somehow accomplished, but more on that next time. Until then, be safe!