You took a scholarship from someone who wouldn't have quit. Better to leave before wasting more of other people's time.
You, and everyone else, have no way of knowing if that is the truth. Period. There is a reason why ROTC programs award scholarships and then allow for people to try the program out for a year without financial repercussions. It's the reason why Service Academies don't hold a commitment ceremony until the end of a cadet/midshipman's sophomore year of the beginning of their junior year. Attrition is factored into the quotas maintained by personnel management offices, admissions, etc. They EXPECT people to leave. What may sound good at the beginning of someone's freshman year of high school may not end up being what they truly want once they go to college or once they enlist for that matter. People change, have different goals and want different things.
As for the OP "taking" the scholarship away from someone, another false statement. OP earned the scholarship, they would not have given it to him otherwise. The people who didn't get scholarships, guess what? Not everyone wins and not everyone gets a trophy. Those people were beat out by their competition. It doesn't make them unaccomplished or inadequate individuals, other applicants were just better. That's life. Statements like this irritate me because it's an attempt to make someone not afforded an opportunity feel better about themselves by trying to convince others that they were a better fit, that they wouldn't have quit, that they deserved it and the one who withdrew didn't, without having any experience in a SMC, ROTC or SA environment. This forum is for all people to come and seek advice, ask questions, discuss their options and learn. It's not here to make generalizations and inaccurate perceptions of someone's character based off of one four-line post.
OP, like others have stated, carefully consider your options. I recommend you finish out your freshman year. Consider your financial options if you withdraw from the scholarship, discuss additional opportunities with your family and really consider your decision. You say you want to serve your country yet you feel ready to give up an almost fool proof method of obtaining a commission for the hope that you're accepted to OCS following your college experience. There's no guarantee that you'll be accepted to OCS, it's just as competitive, if not more so, than ROTC. Consider that next time you apply for another opportunity, someone else might beat you out. Service is also about sacrifice, you may be right that you'll miss out on some of the aspects of "regular college life" but you also have the opportunity to experience so much more than the college students not enrolled in ROTC. At the end of the day, you need to ask yourself what is more important to you, a four-year "supposed to be normal" experience or the chance you claim you desire most of all, to serve in what is considered to be the world's premiere naval service. I have high school classmates who went to Ivy Leagues and top tier schools who wanted the normal college experience that are now waiting tables in my 2,000 person hometown, I have others that are in medical school, those that are engineers, pharmacists, teachers. I have a classmate who enlisted in the USMC, has been deployed five times and has four kids. I have a friend who now lives in Ireland, travels with a renowned choir and sees the world. There is no such thing as a normal or regular college experience or life experience. It's up to the individual to make choices about what kind of life or experience they want to have while potentially making short term sacrifices to get there. Good luck!
