Accomplishing Life - Essay Example

Accomplishing Life The aim of this is for the readers to find out how I came to accomplish what I currently have in life and how it was not easy considering the challenges my family and I faced in my younger years and throughout my career journey and change. This story of my life accomplishments first began in San Bernardino, CA where I was born on July 31st 1987. Shortly after I was born, my older brother Anthony, my mom and dad moved to MI where my younger brother Don was born. We all grew up very close and grew even closer after our parents got divorced while we were still very young. Most of the time all we had was each other and that is why I surprised my family when I told them that I was going to join the army. My brothers and I did not have any money to go to college when we graduated, plus I didn’t want to go to college right away. I graduated in 2005 and a year later I joined the United States Army. At the time I didn’t feel like I had accomplished anything so far even though i did ok in school. I played sports and was part of school activities but still had certain goals I wanted to reach and I knew I had to start somewhere. I wanted to get away from home and see what was out in the real world for me. Army was the way to go, and then maybe I could start accomplishing my life goals. The journey for my army accomplishment started in June 2006 when i was sent off to Fort Jackson, SC for basic training. It was 9 weeks of physical and mental training and a lot of people telling you what to do all the time. There were four platoons that consisted of 50-60 people. The four platoons made one company. I was in fourth platoon, which was one of the greatest platoons you wanted to be in. I started meeting a lot of great people and did a lot of team building. We ran miles and miles; ruck marched through woods and sand, which was hard when you carried 30lbs on your back- holding a weapon. We learned about many different weapons and how to shoot them. Did a lot of land navigation and cleaning. We had to keep our bunks made, lockers in the correct order to the drill sergeants standards and made sure we were all in the right uniform at all times. Everything we did was watched by a drill sergeant and always had to have a battle buddy everywhere you go no matter where you go including even to the bathroom, however, only the same sex could be battle buddies. At this time in my life I thought I was goanna change, be more disciplined and become this person that was goanna be tougher and better. From this point on I would meet new people everywhere I go. But my journey wasn’t quite over with. My next stop was Aberdeen, MD. This is where I had to spend 11weeks of learning the job I had signed up for when I swore in the Army. My job was a 91D, a Generator Mechanic. My dad and brothers were grease monkeys so I had little knowledge on tools and engines. They loved to work on cars and I would always watch sometimes even help. I had start school to learn all about generators and this meant I had to wake up early and when I say early I mean 5:30 am. I was used to this by the time I got out of basic training. We would then do physical training, either running or working out whether in rain or shine, hot or cold. After our PT session which usually lasted for over an hour, we ate, showered and formed up in our platoons to march to school. If you didn’t pass you had to start all over with another class. I was nervous because I wasn’t sure if I would remember everything when I go to my first duty station. When we passed we found out where we were headed to-Korea, my first duty station. Korea was an experience in itself. It was not only a learning experience but also was my first time ever being out of the country. Everything was all-new to me all around me including the people and my job; life was different to me. I first had to figure out my place of duty and who was in charge of me. I was with the other truck, a/c mechanics. There were a lot of guys and only two females, which wasn’t hard to get used to considering I grew up with my two brothers. I worked on a few generators and always had help, which was very awesome. I relearned a lot as I went along. When I wasn’t working I would go out with a few friends into the city. The best part about being in Korea was that the food was different, how you traveled, money, courtesy, almost everything was different. We traveled by taxi or bus and when there was an ambulance rushing to the hospital cars don’t move aside for them like here in the US. We generally give up seats for pregnant woman or older folk but if anyone was older than you and you are sitting, Korean people would stand in front of you waiting for you to get up so they can sit down. They had dog farms because a lot of them eat dogs, which I personally never tried it. There were a lot of hills and mountains, which I got to, climbing a lot during my free time. I explored a lot of Korea going a lot of places and seeing a lot of things. I enjoyed the food but not the kimshi; as it was smelly and gross looking. So I was very happy where I was even though I was far from home. We did get to come home for a few weeks during our tour. We had to be in Korea for a year but we could extend another year if we wanted to. Plus we don’t deploy from Korea unlike Hawaii or Germany, they deploy to Afghanistan or Iraq. So my year was up. I got new orders to go to Fort Gordon, GA. This is where I started feeling like I’m doing something good with my life and not a lot of people can say that they have been to Korea. But I still feel like I needed to accomplish more. Fort Gordon, GA….To me it wasn’t much but another new place and new people. I got new experiences with training and becoming a better leader. I wanted to excel in my career, become higher ranking. In the Army there are promotions but you really have to work towards them. When you get promoted you change ranks. I went from a PFC to a SPC. Then one of my goals was to work towards becoming a sergeant. I went through special training to become a NCO. A sergeant is a Noncommissan officer. I remember wanting it so bad that I did my best in my job, taking charge and always on time and in the right uniform. You also have to do correspondent courses that are classes online through the army. Nothing like college just short classes about the Army and its standards and regulations. I didn’t stay long in Fort Gordon because I reenlisted for more years in service and a new duty station. I knew that I wanted to make a career in the Army. Before I just wanted to do the three years I signed up to get money for college and just go back home. My goals soon changed. Fort Campbell, KY was my last and final stop besides deploying to Afghanistan. I got promotable to be an NCO, had all my training done and the next thing was to actually get promoted. I chose to move to Fort Campbell because my younger brother Don joined the Army shortly after I did. He was deployed to Iraq though. I was happy to be near family finally and have a good career. I was proud to serve my country and it made me always feel good when someone said “Thank You for serving!” After being there a little over a year we were ready to ship out to Afghanistan. We did a lot of training and preparing for whatever comes our way. My company was split up between fobs. I was with my platoon at a new location we just claimed to be ours. So of course we were the first ones there in the middle of the desert but near one small town. We build it from the ground up. It wasn’t pleasant at first because we had to sleep outside and eat our meals out of a bag. Well it was MRE’s and they weren’t very good. The worst part was sharing the fob with afghan military. Their hygiene isn’t well kept like ours. We Americans have more personal hygiene items than they do and they don’t have showers like us. It’s a poor country so they live off what they can. They raise goats and kill them their selves to eat and they always ate rice, bread and drank tea. One thing I got used to was seeing murder and being shot at almost every day. In the summer it was the worst and the winter died down but we always stay on alert. We had bunkers to hide in when we got shot at. When we got shot at we would just shoot back, sometimes not even knowing who or what we are shooting at because kids also had guns and they tried to shoot us as well. I had one of the most important jobs working with the officers, commanders and generals. I was in control of the blue force tracker, which are a GPS/computer and the radio. They would always radio us and send a grid of their whereabouts when a platoon was leaving or coming back, when they got in a fire fight or even when they needed ammo or had casualties. If someone got hurt we would have to call up a 9-line medevac and get a helicopter to take him or her to a hospital. April 2011 most of us made it home in one piece. Afghanistan really changed me and my outlook on my career. Meeting my husband Tony in Afghanistan was a career changer for me and it hence concluded my first phase of life accomplishment and started what I term as my second accomplishment which I am yet to see how it goes. My husband Tony was a contractor for the government. He spent 10 years prior to contracting, in the Army. In May 2011 we got married and in June we found out we were having a baby. I had already achieved most of my goals which were: to have a good and well established career, get married and have kids. I felt like I had accomplished all of them. I however started wondering how we would accomplish life all together? How we would like our life accomplished? Do we settle at some point and think we have reached our goals? I think life changes and so do we along with our goals. I thought that joining the army to get college money was what I wanted until I realized that what I wanted to make a career was having a husband and having my son. I got out of the Army and started school. So now I’m back at square one. Will this be it for my family and me? who knows but I know that I want to live my life knowing I’m accomplishing everything I want. Read More