The past eight weeks have been crazy. I’ve been in San Antonio, Texas at Air Force BMT, spending my days rolling shirts and socks and marching around in blazing heat, with no phone, none of my own clothes, no familiar faces and a 15 minute phone call every two weeks. But it is absolutely worth it. Throughout BMT you learn incredible physical and mental discipline, respect, time management, leadership skills, and yes even how to fold and roll a t-shirt perfectly! But that is one of the best parts about BMT is it challenges you to ivercome fears or weaknesses, some of which you dint even know you have. One of these challanges for me during BMT was being placed in a leadership role. I am not a natural leader, and generally like to avoid conflict. But when I got there they put me straight into a leadership role, so I had to learn to be a confident, communicative, and decisive leader or else my flight would suffer. That was one of the many things I learned in BMT. Overall it is a life changing experience; you go in as a nervous civilian getting yelled at for everything you do wrong and anything you try to do right, and come out a proud, confident American Airman.

One of the things that encouraged me and helped me push through the hard days at BMT was the statues and art work of heroes of the Air Force that went before me. When I was struggling to find the physical or mental energy to push though PT or a four hour long class, I would always be encouraged by the paintings on the wall of Airmen heroes that died in battle saving countless lives or taking out countless enemies. I am so glad that I get to be part of that legacy of valor, and serve my country in the Worlds Greatest Air Force!