Obelisk
11-04-06, 04:55 AM
As this is a letter of introduction I will start by introducing myself: my name is Jeremiah Young, and this is my first post on leatherneck.com. Before I posted in any of the other threads I thought it would be appropriate to tell a little bit about myself, alot more maybe than is present in my profile. I did my best to make sure I posted this in the right forum, however since I'm not a Poolee I'm still not quite sure this is the right place (I did not see any other appropriate channel though).
In any case, I'm a senior in International Studies at American University in Washington, DC, and I'm becoming more and more interested in becoming a Marine after graduation. This isn't the first time I've thought about this, but this is the first time I've approached it seriously enough to do alot of research on the subject. Now as for my reasons for wanting to become a Marine, there are many: I want to do something in the service of my country, something that I can be proud of, a genuine pride that reflects genuine accomplishment. In addition, I want to do something that will be active, something that goes beyond sitting at a desk and doing research, something that really has a direct effect on people's lives. Furthermore, I'd be lying if I didn't say that a part of me relishes the idea of indulging the aggressiveness and violence of my own nature that it has been necessary to repress in civilian life, and of far more importance to do so in the service of a noble cause.
People who know me would probably think that I would make an unlikely soldier, let alone a Marine. I'm not athletic, not very proactive, and not very disciplined. These are all strikes against me, but they are also all traits about myself that I despise. I'm not going to make excuses about them, I should have shed myself of such bad habits long ago, not having done so yet is more than likely another strike against me. But I do want to get rid of them, very badly in fact. Badly enough, maybe, to move away from everything I've ever known. At this point, I think getting rid of those bad habits might actually require getting away from everything I've ever known.
Given what I've described, what makes me think I can/should become a Marine? First of all, whenever I've read posts on this forum that dealt with the mission of the Marines and its ethos, I identify with it. I don't want to be given anything I haven't earned, I don't want to be anything but the tip of the spear, I don't want to do anything without giving it my all. But, most of all, I want my life to change. I've read people talk about how the Corps has been a life-changing experience for them, and I want that change for myself. Whenever I read about Marines dying in Iraq, I don't get sad or depressed, I get angry. Angry -- by this I mean that I get angry I'm not doing anything to help, angry that I went to college and hated it while other men went to war and fought and died on my behalf. And whenever I see/hear war protesters talking about soldiers dying in Iraq, I get angry too. I get angry because they just don't seem to get how someone can love their country so much that they are willing to kill and die for it, and how their deaths aren't really tragedies because they died doing what they loved, which is why their deaths should never be used as political tools.
But now the time is coming around when I will have to do more than just get angry, I will have to make some really hard choices. Up until now I figured that I would end up going into intelligence work as an analyst, but over the past year that has become less and less appealing to me, perhaps because I realized that being an analyst would mean being behind a desk all day, with just a few chances to go out in the field once in awhile. Now I realize that there are far more opportunities availible than just being an analyst in intel work, but I just don't feel qualified to do them. That's part of why I want to become a Marine, I don't want to look at anything and not feel qualified/confident enough to tackle it. I want to pick up the kind of skills you just can't get in the civilian world, first-hand experience of what soldiers go through and what the situation is really like on the ground. I want to be a Marine because I want to spend the rest of my life doing work that will help protect people, and being a Marine will give me the mindset and abilities that I will need to get that done.
Now, there is still one more thing I have to say. So far all I've given is alot of talk, with no action. Some of you might want to tell me to just go and talk to a recruiter right away, but unfortunately that just isn't an option for me. I'm in Beijing, China right now for a semester, which means that I'm just about as far as I can get from anyone that I can meet in person to help me start making the transformation from piece-of-**** civilian to (potential) Marine officer. Which means that the best, perhaps only, tool that I've got at my disposal right now is the Internet. I'm doing my best to read up on what it takes to be a Marine, familiarizing myself with acronyms, standards of behavior, etc., but I'm sure there will be a few things that I'll say that will just rub some people the wrong way. I apologize in advance, my life so far hasn't really given me too many opportunities to develop an appropriate disposition towards authority figures. If I ever say anything that anyone deems to be too informal, just call me on it in the nicest manner you can manage at the time (or be an *******, you've earned that right :) ), and I guarantee that I will not repeat the same mistake twice.
Signing off (for now),
Jeremiah Young
jem@fishcards.com
In any case, I'm a senior in International Studies at American University in Washington, DC, and I'm becoming more and more interested in becoming a Marine after graduation. This isn't the first time I've thought about this, but this is the first time I've approached it seriously enough to do alot of research on the subject. Now as for my reasons for wanting to become a Marine, there are many: I want to do something in the service of my country, something that I can be proud of, a genuine pride that reflects genuine accomplishment. In addition, I want to do something that will be active, something that goes beyond sitting at a desk and doing research, something that really has a direct effect on people's lives. Furthermore, I'd be lying if I didn't say that a part of me relishes the idea of indulging the aggressiveness and violence of my own nature that it has been necessary to repress in civilian life, and of far more importance to do so in the service of a noble cause.
People who know me would probably think that I would make an unlikely soldier, let alone a Marine. I'm not athletic, not very proactive, and not very disciplined. These are all strikes against me, but they are also all traits about myself that I despise. I'm not going to make excuses about them, I should have shed myself of such bad habits long ago, not having done so yet is more than likely another strike against me. But I do want to get rid of them, very badly in fact. Badly enough, maybe, to move away from everything I've ever known. At this point, I think getting rid of those bad habits might actually require getting away from everything I've ever known.
Given what I've described, what makes me think I can/should become a Marine? First of all, whenever I've read posts on this forum that dealt with the mission of the Marines and its ethos, I identify with it. I don't want to be given anything I haven't earned, I don't want to be anything but the tip of the spear, I don't want to do anything without giving it my all. But, most of all, I want my life to change. I've read people talk about how the Corps has been a life-changing experience for them, and I want that change for myself. Whenever I read about Marines dying in Iraq, I don't get sad or depressed, I get angry. Angry -- by this I mean that I get angry I'm not doing anything to help, angry that I went to college and hated it while other men went to war and fought and died on my behalf. And whenever I see/hear war protesters talking about soldiers dying in Iraq, I get angry too. I get angry because they just don't seem to get how someone can love their country so much that they are willing to kill and die for it, and how their deaths aren't really tragedies because they died doing what they loved, which is why their deaths should never be used as political tools.
But now the time is coming around when I will have to do more than just get angry, I will have to make some really hard choices. Up until now I figured that I would end up going into intelligence work as an analyst, but over the past year that has become less and less appealing to me, perhaps because I realized that being an analyst would mean being behind a desk all day, with just a few chances to go out in the field once in awhile. Now I realize that there are far more opportunities availible than just being an analyst in intel work, but I just don't feel qualified to do them. That's part of why I want to become a Marine, I don't want to look at anything and not feel qualified/confident enough to tackle it. I want to pick up the kind of skills you just can't get in the civilian world, first-hand experience of what soldiers go through and what the situation is really like on the ground. I want to be a Marine because I want to spend the rest of my life doing work that will help protect people, and being a Marine will give me the mindset and abilities that I will need to get that done.
Now, there is still one more thing I have to say. So far all I've given is alot of talk, with no action. Some of you might want to tell me to just go and talk to a recruiter right away, but unfortunately that just isn't an option for me. I'm in Beijing, China right now for a semester, which means that I'm just about as far as I can get from anyone that I can meet in person to help me start making the transformation from piece-of-**** civilian to (potential) Marine officer. Which means that the best, perhaps only, tool that I've got at my disposal right now is the Internet. I'm doing my best to read up on what it takes to be a Marine, familiarizing myself with acronyms, standards of behavior, etc., but I'm sure there will be a few things that I'll say that will just rub some people the wrong way. I apologize in advance, my life so far hasn't really given me too many opportunities to develop an appropriate disposition towards authority figures. If I ever say anything that anyone deems to be too informal, just call me on it in the nicest manner you can manage at the time (or be an *******, you've earned that right :) ), and I guarantee that I will not repeat the same mistake twice.
Signing off (for now),
Jeremiah Young
jem@fishcards.com