This story really predates to 2011, when I first had intentions of joining the military (or at least took the first steps to doing so). So I’ll begin there.

I graduated high school in 2011 at the end of the first semester, because my girlfriend (now wife) was pregnant. I was soon out of my comfort zone of the 8 am-3 pm school schedule that I’d been accustomed to for 13 years and found myself working at a chicken processing plant (was as fun as it sounds). Before long I began thinking about my future, and knowing that I would probably quit before my two month anniversary, I started to pursue other interests. I found myself going to college through online classes, but I missed out on the oral lectures (something I never thought I would say) and ended up dropping out before the end of semester.

It was then that I decided that I would look into joining the military; though, not wanting to be whisked away by the government to the opposite side of the country (or world) to live for the next few years, leaving my girlfriend and daughter back at home — I began looking into the National Guard.

I drove to the recruiter’s office on a whim one day to see if may be the right fit for me. It was near the end of conversation that I realized just what I was doing; was it what I wanted to do? I had agreed with the recruiter, for some reason, that I would enlist as a 12K — which is a plumber. That is not what I wanted to get out of the military so the day I was supposed to leave for MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station), I let my recruiter know that I wasn’t ready to join up. And so life continued.