Basic was the most amazing thing I had been through. It taught me a lot about myself. Especially showing me the things I never thought I could do. I didn't think it was the easiest but I also didn't think it was the hardest. A lot of my fellow battle buddies thought Basic was insanely easy. At times, it was dismal being there and I did wonder if I'd make it through. It's all completely mental. But honestly, it was a lot of fun and sometimes I wish I could go back. As for my AIT (Advanced Individual Training) schools, that was a whole 'nother story.
Unfortunately, I managed to end up at 3 different AIT's and lemme tell you, for the most part, they're all the same. The people are different. Belvoir was not bad I must say. It was crazy laid back on the weekends even if you were stuck at the barracks. The Cadre (people in charge) was a little crazy but thankfully, there were only 4 of them. Ah, SFC for 1st Platoon, she could've been certifiably crazy but supposedly, she was secretly f-in AWEsome.
At the time, we all felt like the place was worse than basic. There were so many BS rules that just seemed impossible to follow. And the other kids that had been there for a while had seemed soooo undisciplined and disorganized. It was hard to believe they all had gone through basic at all. I promised myself that I would never lose myself and what I had learned from my Drill Sergeants.
Eustis...that was something else. It's a wonder my battles survived that place. THAT place made people insane. It was more depressing and miserable than Basic. It was a complete 180 from Belvoir. We had a mandatory study hour every night. We had to clean the barracks every day. We never seemed to have any free time. We were allotted an hour of personal time but because of random stupid things, we'd only have 30 or 40 minutes. A lot of people went AWOL from Eustis and I personally witnessed two cases.
Lee wasn't too bad. It was a mix of both places. It had all the BS of Eustis with the best of Belvoir. What was nice about Lee was that when one person f-ed up, they didn't discipline the entire company like they did at Eustis. They only punished those that had committed the crime. My class was extremely lucky, not only did we not have to go to the FTX (Field Training Exercise) but we were also able to graduate and go home 3 weeks ahead of schedule.
So, it was back home I went. By this time, I had been away from Maile for almost a year. I had so many worries upon my arrival, but they were definitely gone when I woke her up. Reconnecting with her was awesome.
And now, 3 months later, I'm back to where I was before I began this journey. I had hoped to find a job that correlated with my military one. I happen to have a job that I don't actually want nor am very good at and so finding a similar one is out of the question. I also found out that employers don't really even look at military schooling when considering people for jobs. Experience but not schooling.
The next part of my journey begins. I wanted to document it more as something that Maile could look back on when she's older. I've been wanting to start a journal for her for the past 3 years. To show her what I'm going through, what she's going through. What I want for her. The mistakes that I pray she doesn't repeat.
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