For those of you that follow me on Facebook, which is probably everybody that reads this blog, I might've been somewhat cryptic with my last status update before disappearing for three months. I didn't tell anywhere where I was going except that I was going on another "adventure".
And boy was it ever an adventure. I joined the Air Force. Well, the Air National Guard to be more accurate. The last three months I've been in Basic Training. Well, 8.5 weeks of Boot Camp and the last three weeks I've been in tech school. I have another seven+ months of tech school left before I go back to my home base.
There are a couple of reasons that I intentionally avoided broadcasting to the world that I joined the Air Force--the primary one being that I wanted to complete at least Basic Training before I went around telling people. I figured there was a real possibility that I wouldn't be able to complete Boot Camp considering I've never been particularly adept at physically demanding activities, and while the Air Force isn't the Marines, it's become significantly more physically difficult over the last couple of years. So I was a bit worried and I didn't want to tell everyone I joined only to tell them I couldn't hack it. But I hacked it. I hacked it good.
I will say, Basic Military Training with the Air Force was by far the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life. Not just physically difficult--though that too--but they really screwed with us psychologically. I mean, I expected that, but even knowing logically what was happening, it was hard not to let continuous psychological attacks not affect me. Plus I always felt sleep deprived, regularly pushed myself, and then was immediately killed by powerpoint. They sit you in these classes when you're fatigued and expect you not to fall asleep. And damn, you better not be falling asleep.
Anyway, it truly was an adventure. I definitely feel like I improved myself. I lost a ton of fat, gained a bunch of muscle, gained self-confidence, loud noises no longer make me jump, and the list goes on. I really do feel like it was overall a very positive experience, even though at times I was wondering why the frak I joined in the first place.
But that's now over, and now I'm in technical training school for my chosen career field for the next few months before I go back to my home base in Hawaii. Tech school has actually been pretty great. The oddest and perhaps most difficult thing to deal with has just been my complete loss of autonomy and independence. But I am nothing if not adaptable.
I hope to continue updating this blog, but tech school actually keeps me pretty darn busy, not to mention the fact that the internet here sucks. So I may not get a chance to write again any time soon...but I'll try!
