Got obstacles?

What's holding me back from enlistment?
Not a lot. First and foremost, my weight. The Marine Corps doesn't take just anyone, so I've still got a little bit more weight to lose now. Second, I need to make sure I get the waiver for my ankle (For whoever doesn't know, I have a big plate and 13 screws in my leg). There shouldn't be any problems with that though, it's doing great. My orthopedist even made all of my reports really good because he knew I'm trying to enlist. Other than that, the only nagging issue I'm having is the tightness in my chest when I run. I'm going to assume it's just because I haven't run in months, and it's wintertime. It only lasts for maybe 5-10 minutes, so I'm trying to just ignore it.


By the way, my URL is "soontobe0151", that means the MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) that I'm enlisting in will be 0151, which is an Administrative Clerk. This isn't for sure though, I'm not positive just yet if that's what I want to do. Part of me would still like to be a Military Police Officer (5811). Just thought I'd explain that to anyone who might be confused.


For now, I'm trying to refrain from the whole "when I'm in boot camp" talk, because I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket and assume that I'm going to pass all the physical testing at MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station). Who knows what could come up between now and then, I had no idea something like breaking my ankle was going to happen the morning it did.


Oh, and one more cool thing. I scored a 69 on my ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery aka the long annoying test you have to pass.) which is pretty good. You can get up to a 99, but 50 and higher isn't bad at all. That pretty much just means I'm not dumb, and I've got a good selection of jobs to choose from.


I'm trying to think of anything else that my family might wonder...I guess a couple might be "will you get deployed" and "how far from home will you be". I could absolutely get deployed, and chances are with the given state of our country right now, I will. There's no telling though. I'm going to be enlisting in the Reserves for now though, so I'll still be in Oregon. I won't be living in some far away state on base. I'll be able to live at home and do my deal as a civilian except for drill weekends, unless/until I get deployed. What else...for training, I'll be gone for 13 weeks, then home for 10 days. I'd love for everyone to write me letters. After that I'll go to MCT (Marine Combat Training), and then go to MOS school, which will be the Admin course in North Carolina, or MP (Military Police) school in Missouri. (Again this is assuming that all goes according to plan. We won't know anything set in stone until I go to MEPS and do all of my initial processing.)