I'm currently a Doolie at USAFA. So far, I've really enjoyed my time here. I met some amazing people that I know will be my friends for the rest of my life, I've learned a lot about myself, and I've had experiences that I will never forget. Despite how much Doolie year is supposed to suck, I've actually enjoyed myself. However, I am considering leaving for two fundamental reasons. One of the main reasons is that USAFA does not have a major that I am passionate about. When I applied here, I thought that it would be a lot more military focused and a lot less academic focused, so I thought it wouldn't matter that USAFA doesn't offer a major that I am interested in, however, that has not been the case. I'm not sure how I ended up with that impression, but I was wrong. 80% of what I do here is academics. It's not so much the issue that academics are hard, even though they are, I just know that I will never get to take classes that I am passionate about, which makes it really hard to be able to look forward to the future, especially when I know that no matter what my major is, I will need to take a great deal of engineering core classes that I am not remotely interested in. I've been told to just get through academics, and that it will be all worth it when I finally graduate. I have an issue with that. I will be spending 3 and 1/2 more years here, and since so much of my time is spent on academics, the thought of struggling through with a major that I don't care about is absolutely miserable. I don't want to "waste" that much of my life. My other reason for wanting to leave arose because I decided that I no longer want to be a pilot. All my life I have worked to avoid any kind of desk or management job, but I'm afraid that that's what I'll end up with upon graduating from here if I'm not a pilot. Growing up, I wanted to be an EMT or something where it was me actually physically doing stuff. I know that the role of officers is very important, but I just don't think that it is for me. I feel like somewhere along the lines I traded all the things that I am passionate about and that excite me for future job security and health care benefits. If I do decide that I don't want to stay at the Academy, I have no intentions of sticking it our for the next year and a half in order to "get more free credits" as I have been advised by my friends. I would leave after this semester. However, I am terrified that I would regret leaving. This is an amazing opportunity, that I worked very hard for. I also know that graduating from the academy will give me lots of connections, and that even if I decide to leave the military after 5 years, those connections will help me to get jobs in the civilian sector. If anyone could weigh it, that would be fantastic.