Unfulfilled

Oh hey.

First, to answer all of those wondering...no, I did not finish OCS.

Sad, yes, but only initially. What happened?

Short story: Stress fractures (two) in the left tibia.

Long story:

Around week 4 my shin splints started acting up again. Nothing too serious, I would ice and elevate them when possible and the pain would go away. No big deal. One day during week 6 I woke up and could barely walk. The pain didn't go away. So I thought, 'I will just have the corpsman (a Navy enlisted who is like a pseudo-doctor) wrap them'. Upon talking with the corpsman, he suggested that I go see the Athletic Trainer who then pointed me towards medical to get some xrays due to the swelling. The xrays came back positive for stress fractures and due to my age the medical staff 'suggested' that I return to the civilian world, heal, and come back to OCS. So that is the plan, hence the initial sadness. But on to the good stuff.

First, I loved it. I loved everything about it. Waking up at 0400, the yelling, the training 'evolutions', I loved it all. In the process I learned a lot about myself. First off, I learned that I am not mature enough at all to lead Marines. The videos that we saw, like this one:



opened my eyes up to what goes on over there. I honestly think that I am meant to lead USMC Infantry, but am not quite there yet.

The whole experience is kind of an surreal one. I was so distant from everything, it was weird. For the first three weeks we didn't get any kind of liberty, so it was like one big day with little naps. Once we got liberty, it was a little more like reality. But still, a little different. For example, the election. It was almost like it never happened.

Even though the United States Marine Corps is directly under the order of the President, whereas Congress has a say in the other branches, there was no big news when Obama won. Me and some of the other candidates joked about how 20 years from now our kids will ask, "what were you doing when you found out Obama won?" Our answers, "I was marking my PT gear in Quantico, VA." Our platoon sergeant just popped his head out, said 'Obama', and closed the hatch. No cheers, no boos, just a small acknowledgement and on with our day. As we marched over to morning chow there were small whispers of the importance of it, but still nothing big. It climaxed with a 10 minute discussion with our platoon sergeant. He told us that we experienced something historical and that even though there isn't much talk on base about it that it is a very big deal. Anyway, I digress.

Along with learning my true maturity level, I learned a lot about my physical limits. The PT (Physical Training) was rigorous. A lot of circuit training, trail running, and a little bit of MMA stuff. But I was under constant sleep deprivation and didn't ever really have a full stomach. I do not say this meaning that they restricted me from sleep or eating. I chose how much sleep I got, they offered 8 hours every night. And I was just always hungry...I stuffed my face every meal, but was always hungry. The Marine Corps took very good care of us.

The activities we did, even the hikes with 65 lbs of gear on our back, were awesome.

It is funny, there is so much I want to say, but I don't really know how to explain it for people to understand. It is a funny thing.

Will I do it again? Hell yes. When? Who knows. I have a plan to be a civilian for a little while. I am going to focus more on my photography. I am going to move to Minnesota and get a place with Bryan. I have a few things that I am planning on doing. But the end point is me returning to OCS and becoming an officer, leading Infantry through the streets of Iraq or Afghanistan (depending on where we are), and serving this country as I feel is my destiny.

A special note to AJ and Betsy: The USMC are followers of the 80/10/10 diet as well just not raw, neat huh?