Michael_T
NU '26
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2020
- Messages
- 692
[Sorry for the Long Post]
It all started back in 2018, in my Freshman Year of High-School, when my interest peaked in joining the military, and after simply doing some research and speaking to some personelle throughout a majority of my Freshman Year, I knew this is what I wanted to commit my life to.
I knew I wanted to pursue a future appointment to a Service Academy, after a Senior from my school was appointed to The Naval Academy; currently a junior, I still talk to him occasionally. He plans to commission into The Marine Corps.
Anyway, after continuously doing my research, and as time went on, my motivation slowly began dropping, as I wasn’t receiving the grades that I desired. I thought that even though I put the time, and effort into each night of studying, something simply wasn’t connecting between my study methods and the material I was learning. This simply continued till the 2nd Semester of my Sophomore Year, and at that point, something connected with me, and I was finally able to pull through with my Semester Grades coming out with only As and Bs. Maybe it was COVID that helped me partially, but maybe it is also what made my motivation drop, who knows… to this day I still must look deep within myself to try and find that answer.
Then, it happened again… in my Junior Year, my grades started to drop again, not as bad as the first time, but I managed to finish my 1st Semester of my Junior Year, with Bs and Cs; this obviously is not what a Service Academy nor an ROTC Scholarship board looks for, my motivation continued to drop.
I knew I was not in a good position to get a future appointment to a Service Academy.
When the 2nd Semester of my Junior Year began, and a few mere 2 months ahead of me when it was my time to open up the preliminary application for each of the Service Academies, in some ways my motivation rose a bit, finally knowing that my time had come to open an application, as I was looking forward to starting the long process. As time passed on, I finished my Junior Year with mediocre grades, and at that time I had opened my preliminary applications and had started merely filling out basic information.
At the end of my Junior Year, I was in the full swing of these applications, and I was determined to complete my applications ASAP, then came the faithful day in the middle of June, I had received Correspondence to my West Point Portal, and at first, I was confused to what it would’ve been because who knew, I wasn’t expecting anything from them at the time. When I opened it, my heart dropped, my West Point application had been shut-down, due to insufficient SAT/ACT scores, and very minor leadership being shown in my application. I was devastated, and initially confused, as to why West Point had cut me off this early in the C / O 2026 Application Process, as time went on, the same thing happened with USAFA - which I did get opened up later, after submitting better SAT scores. After this point in time, let us say after these were all done, this was around August of my Senior Year.
Around this time, I had begun looking at each of the Service Branches, and seeing what my options were when it came to potentially enlisting, I had just turned 17 at the time, and I was excited to see what options I had available to me. I knew that I still wanted to pursue the military, even if I didn’t do ROTC or a Service Academy. I spoke to Recruiters from The Air Force, Army, Navy, and finally The Few The Proud - The Marine Corps. At the time, I say this respectfully, I knew I wanted to challenge myself to a high level, and after subsequently speaking to each of the Recruiters, The Marines stood out to me, because I knew they would indefinitely give me the challenge that I seek to find in life. I personally didn’t find this challenge at the other branches, or simply the recruiters didn’t convince me enough to where
I felt I would belong there. The words of Courage, Commitment, and Honor stood out to me, and the idea of standing on the iconic yellow footprints, where generations of Marines stood connected with me. Note, meeting with all these different recruiters went from around August to November, as I did my research on each branch so I could make an informed decision of what branch I wanted to go with. Then in November, I did it… I told my Marine Corp Recruiter, this is the path I wanted to go with, then the process/paperwork began. I was sent to MEPs the next day, and thankfully it went surprisingly fast and simple. I got medically qualified, and I took my Oath of Enlistment. I took my ASVAB, got a 68 on it opening a lot of jobs, but I plan to retake hopefully soon and improve in that realm. I picked my MOS as Logistics Headquarters, but if I am able to improve my ASVAB score enough, I would love to aim for Intelligence.
At that time, I knew I had to change what my current lifestyle was… I was lucky enough to meet a PT trainer/fitness coach, a not-currently-enlisted-Marine, but as everyone knows “Once a Marine, always a Marine.” Therefore I cannot call him an ex-Marine, that’d be extremely disrespectful, and I have the utmost respect for those who have gone through and earned the title to be called a US Marine. Ever since I’ve been in the DEP as a Poolie since November, I’ve improved in my way of PT, but in some way, I’ve still had my doubts as I’ve expressed in my time on SAF.
I am aware I’ve been very indecisive about my future, in which my plans tend to change about my future, but now I’m done, I’ve solidified my intentions…
Semper Fidelis, Oorah Devil Dogs.
It all started back in 2018, in my Freshman Year of High-School, when my interest peaked in joining the military, and after simply doing some research and speaking to some personelle throughout a majority of my Freshman Year, I knew this is what I wanted to commit my life to.
I knew I wanted to pursue a future appointment to a Service Academy, after a Senior from my school was appointed to The Naval Academy; currently a junior, I still talk to him occasionally. He plans to commission into The Marine Corps.
Anyway, after continuously doing my research, and as time went on, my motivation slowly began dropping, as I wasn’t receiving the grades that I desired. I thought that even though I put the time, and effort into each night of studying, something simply wasn’t connecting between my study methods and the material I was learning. This simply continued till the 2nd Semester of my Sophomore Year, and at that point, something connected with me, and I was finally able to pull through with my Semester Grades coming out with only As and Bs. Maybe it was COVID that helped me partially, but maybe it is also what made my motivation drop, who knows… to this day I still must look deep within myself to try and find that answer.
Then, it happened again… in my Junior Year, my grades started to drop again, not as bad as the first time, but I managed to finish my 1st Semester of my Junior Year, with Bs and Cs; this obviously is not what a Service Academy nor an ROTC Scholarship board looks for, my motivation continued to drop.
I knew I was not in a good position to get a future appointment to a Service Academy.
When the 2nd Semester of my Junior Year began, and a few mere 2 months ahead of me when it was my time to open up the preliminary application for each of the Service Academies, in some ways my motivation rose a bit, finally knowing that my time had come to open an application, as I was looking forward to starting the long process. As time passed on, I finished my Junior Year with mediocre grades, and at that time I had opened my preliminary applications and had started merely filling out basic information.
At the end of my Junior Year, I was in the full swing of these applications, and I was determined to complete my applications ASAP, then came the faithful day in the middle of June, I had received Correspondence to my West Point Portal, and at first, I was confused to what it would’ve been because who knew, I wasn’t expecting anything from them at the time. When I opened it, my heart dropped, my West Point application had been shut-down, due to insufficient SAT/ACT scores, and very minor leadership being shown in my application. I was devastated, and initially confused, as to why West Point had cut me off this early in the C / O 2026 Application Process, as time went on, the same thing happened with USAFA - which I did get opened up later, after submitting better SAT scores. After this point in time, let us say after these were all done, this was around August of my Senior Year.
Around this time, I had begun looking at each of the Service Branches, and seeing what my options were when it came to potentially enlisting, I had just turned 17 at the time, and I was excited to see what options I had available to me. I knew that I still wanted to pursue the military, even if I didn’t do ROTC or a Service Academy. I spoke to Recruiters from The Air Force, Army, Navy, and finally The Few The Proud - The Marine Corps. At the time, I say this respectfully, I knew I wanted to challenge myself to a high level, and after subsequently speaking to each of the Recruiters, The Marines stood out to me, because I knew they would indefinitely give me the challenge that I seek to find in life. I personally didn’t find this challenge at the other branches, or simply the recruiters didn’t convince me enough to where
I felt I would belong there. The words of Courage, Commitment, and Honor stood out to me, and the idea of standing on the iconic yellow footprints, where generations of Marines stood connected with me. Note, meeting with all these different recruiters went from around August to November, as I did my research on each branch so I could make an informed decision of what branch I wanted to go with. Then in November, I did it… I told my Marine Corp Recruiter, this is the path I wanted to go with, then the process/paperwork began. I was sent to MEPs the next day, and thankfully it went surprisingly fast and simple. I got medically qualified, and I took my Oath of Enlistment. I took my ASVAB, got a 68 on it opening a lot of jobs, but I plan to retake hopefully soon and improve in that realm. I picked my MOS as Logistics Headquarters, but if I am able to improve my ASVAB score enough, I would love to aim for Intelligence.
At that time, I knew I had to change what my current lifestyle was… I was lucky enough to meet a PT trainer/fitness coach, a not-currently-enlisted-Marine, but as everyone knows “Once a Marine, always a Marine.” Therefore I cannot call him an ex-Marine, that’d be extremely disrespectful, and I have the utmost respect for those who have gone through and earned the title to be called a US Marine. Ever since I’ve been in the DEP as a Poolie since November, I’ve improved in my way of PT, but in some way, I’ve still had my doubts as I’ve expressed in my time on SAF.
I am aware I’ve been very indecisive about my future, in which my plans tend to change about my future, but now I’m done, I’ve solidified my intentions…
Semper Fidelis, Oorah Devil Dogs.