MTN418
07-06-10, 10:16 PM
So I was talking to my older sister, who is basically my voice of reason, and we were talking about me and the Corps.
We talked about how before I decided that I wanted to be a Marine, I had talked to no one. I never asked for opinions from family, never said, 'Hey, what would you think about...?', and the first thing they heard from me about it was, 'I will be a Marine.'
My sister is super supportive of me, but she also is the one that asks the tough questions. The one that stuck out to me was:
"You sound like you know you want to accomplish something that you can be proud of, but how do you know it's through the military?"
I gave her answers such as 'I know I can do this' and 'I want to serve and protect because it's who I am'. I want to do it so that I may become a better individual mentally and physically and I want to lead others to do the same.
But then she brought up another good point: People accomplish things that they can be proud of through other means other than the military, such as my father who worked 12 extremely hard years as a doctor in the ER. To be able to work 24 hours shifts so many times a month he had to be physically fit to handle the stress, he had to push himself mentally to be able to get through the day, and he led people to do the same so that he and all that were led by his example can protect others. He has never had the problem of going to sleep at night and wondering if he's done something amazing.
So while maybe this is a question that I have to answer myself, I wanted a Marine's perspective. I know I want to be a Marine, but is that all I need? Is knowing that I want to and can be a Marine enough?
We talked about how before I decided that I wanted to be a Marine, I had talked to no one. I never asked for opinions from family, never said, 'Hey, what would you think about...?', and the first thing they heard from me about it was, 'I will be a Marine.'
My sister is super supportive of me, but she also is the one that asks the tough questions. The one that stuck out to me was:
"You sound like you know you want to accomplish something that you can be proud of, but how do you know it's through the military?"
I gave her answers such as 'I know I can do this' and 'I want to serve and protect because it's who I am'. I want to do it so that I may become a better individual mentally and physically and I want to lead others to do the same.
But then she brought up another good point: People accomplish things that they can be proud of through other means other than the military, such as my father who worked 12 extremely hard years as a doctor in the ER. To be able to work 24 hours shifts so many times a month he had to be physically fit to handle the stress, he had to push himself mentally to be able to get through the day, and he led people to do the same so that he and all that were led by his example can protect others. He has never had the problem of going to sleep at night and wondering if he's done something amazing.
So while maybe this is a question that I have to answer myself, I wanted a Marine's perspective. I know I want to be a Marine, but is that all I need? Is knowing that I want to and can be a Marine enough?