Cortillaen
02-19-10, 04:19 PM
Okay, first the background (or skip to the last paragraph for the point): I never had any contact with any recruiters at my high school, never even really thought about joining until my first year in college. At UMR/MST, my performance was far from what it should have been. I couldn’t skip most of the introductory level classes, but the material was almost entirely review. Bored translated to slacking, and my grades were poor. Near the end of the year, I decided that going into one of the services would be good for me in terms of discipline, learning leadership, and generally figuring out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. The ROTC options there were AF or Army, and, my interests at the time being mostly technology-related, I decided to aim for the AF and signed up for the AFROTC class the next year. I was carrying about 300lbs on my 6”2’ frame then, but the commandant of the detachment let me participate in nearly everything under “special student” status. Come the end of the year, I’d knocked about 50lbs off, my grades were better, and things were looking up. A summer job that amounted to standing around 6 hours at a time after morning classes left me feeling anything but up for real exercise, so my weight was about the same by fall. That year, the old commandant retired and was replaced by one who, claiming a tightening of regulations, restricted my involvement with AFROTC to sitting in on the class until I could get fully within regs - no PT, no drilling, nothing but the 50-minute class. Left mostly to my own devices, I basically repeated my first year’s performance.
By mid year, I’d decided there was no point in continuing to muddle along as I was, but kept at it for the second semester at the urging of my parents. That went no better than the first, so I simply didn’t bother enrolling for the next year (the current one). The economy already tanking, there wasn’t much in the way of work for any seekers, much less one without a degree, and the summer was spent doing very little but looking for a job. On the other hand, there was plenty of time for reflection and self-examination. Ability isn’t an issue at all. I’ve never been interested in physical activities, but a 6”2’ body with weight as a sole problem suggests they aren’t at all out of reach. As for intellect (and there’s no good way to say this without it coming across as bragging, so please try not to take it as such), I was bored even spending all of my primary school life in various honors and gifted programs. My problem is that when something is easy, I get bored and don’t apply myself to the task. Long story short, I lack discipline. Thankfully, I’m not so conceited as to be blind to that fact, and I understand full well that all the ability in the world is utterly useless without the discipline to apply it. Over six years of trying different methods of fixing the problem myself (self-help manuals, online courses, mental exercises, you name it) hadn’t gotten me anywhere, but I knew I had done better during the one year of real involvement in AFROTC. Hence, I decided to enlist, but the deciding factors on which service to join were different from college.
From late summer into the fall, I talked with recruiters from various branches, read material in pamphlets and online, and tried to figure out which branch would be best. Taking into consideration that I do better the more difficult a challenge is and the level of discipline (reportedly) enforced by the various branches, the Marines seemed like the way to go. I figured that if anyone can get my head screwed on straight and my body into shape, the Corps can. In addition, after that is done, I would have more opportunities available than I would in any other branch, seeing as going from the Marines to another branch would be far easier than vice-versa if I found I needed to. It was just before Thanksgiving that I decided I would try to become a Marine, rather poor timing on my part, in retrospect. My weight had meandered back up in the months prior, and my family’s custom of multiple huge meals (with tons of the homemade stuffing I love entirely too much) for both Thanksgiving and Christmas didn’t help much, even with trying to limit how much I ate. Keeping my Calorie intake to around 1800 daily, an hour of walk/run each morning, and pull-ups on a power-assist machine (any opinions thereon, incidentally?) in the evening, and pushups and crunches spread throughout the day have gotten me under the requirements for entering the DEP, as given by my local recruiter last fall, so I checked in today to see if they were any different now or what I needed to do next.
That brings us to the actual point of my post: The new recruiter (the one I’d talked to before has left) informed me that they are currently only taking what he called “grad hold” seniors from the local high schools. I don’t quite understand “grad hold” in that context, but I get that someone looking to enlist at my age is essentially SOL with that recruiting substation. The SSgt also said he had no idea when that policy will change, too. In addition, the SSgt’s choice of wording, “policy”, makes me wonder if it is a blanket policy on all recruiters, Springfield and the local area, or just that substation. I can’t say I like to think that this boils down to “Sorry, missed your chance”. Since I do still want to enlist, I’ll be calling any other relatively nearby recruiters to check the situation, as well as calling back to the local one for more details (the SSgt had to cut things short for an appointment), but what I’m wondering is if anyone here has any ideas or suggestions on what else I could or should do now. Anything’s appreciated, and I do apologize for the length.
By mid year, I’d decided there was no point in continuing to muddle along as I was, but kept at it for the second semester at the urging of my parents. That went no better than the first, so I simply didn’t bother enrolling for the next year (the current one). The economy already tanking, there wasn’t much in the way of work for any seekers, much less one without a degree, and the summer was spent doing very little but looking for a job. On the other hand, there was plenty of time for reflection and self-examination. Ability isn’t an issue at all. I’ve never been interested in physical activities, but a 6”2’ body with weight as a sole problem suggests they aren’t at all out of reach. As for intellect (and there’s no good way to say this without it coming across as bragging, so please try not to take it as such), I was bored even spending all of my primary school life in various honors and gifted programs. My problem is that when something is easy, I get bored and don’t apply myself to the task. Long story short, I lack discipline. Thankfully, I’m not so conceited as to be blind to that fact, and I understand full well that all the ability in the world is utterly useless without the discipline to apply it. Over six years of trying different methods of fixing the problem myself (self-help manuals, online courses, mental exercises, you name it) hadn’t gotten me anywhere, but I knew I had done better during the one year of real involvement in AFROTC. Hence, I decided to enlist, but the deciding factors on which service to join were different from college.
From late summer into the fall, I talked with recruiters from various branches, read material in pamphlets and online, and tried to figure out which branch would be best. Taking into consideration that I do better the more difficult a challenge is and the level of discipline (reportedly) enforced by the various branches, the Marines seemed like the way to go. I figured that if anyone can get my head screwed on straight and my body into shape, the Corps can. In addition, after that is done, I would have more opportunities available than I would in any other branch, seeing as going from the Marines to another branch would be far easier than vice-versa if I found I needed to. It was just before Thanksgiving that I decided I would try to become a Marine, rather poor timing on my part, in retrospect. My weight had meandered back up in the months prior, and my family’s custom of multiple huge meals (with tons of the homemade stuffing I love entirely too much) for both Thanksgiving and Christmas didn’t help much, even with trying to limit how much I ate. Keeping my Calorie intake to around 1800 daily, an hour of walk/run each morning, and pull-ups on a power-assist machine (any opinions thereon, incidentally?) in the evening, and pushups and crunches spread throughout the day have gotten me under the requirements for entering the DEP, as given by my local recruiter last fall, so I checked in today to see if they were any different now or what I needed to do next.
That brings us to the actual point of my post: The new recruiter (the one I’d talked to before has left) informed me that they are currently only taking what he called “grad hold” seniors from the local high schools. I don’t quite understand “grad hold” in that context, but I get that someone looking to enlist at my age is essentially SOL with that recruiting substation. The SSgt also said he had no idea when that policy will change, too. In addition, the SSgt’s choice of wording, “policy”, makes me wonder if it is a blanket policy on all recruiters, Springfield and the local area, or just that substation. I can’t say I like to think that this boils down to “Sorry, missed your chance”. Since I do still want to enlist, I’ll be calling any other relatively nearby recruiters to check the situation, as well as calling back to the local one for more details (the SSgt had to cut things short for an appointment), but what I’m wondering is if anyone here has any ideas or suggestions on what else I could or should do now. Anything’s appreciated, and I do apologize for the length.