Hey everybody it's Steve.
To start, I am of the philosophy that Newton's Laws are an absolute. One of which being that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. We are all responsible for our actions and decisions. As everybody should already be aware I am starting Basic Military Training on 22nd March 2012. That is the main purpose for this post but there's more to it than that.
We all have large decisions and small decisions. Each decision regardless of how big or important it is can always lead to a small or major outcome. For me it seems almost once a year I am making either tough or major decisions. Started with moving out of my parents while still in my last year of school. Moving in with a girl I met over the internet. Moving from state to state, major decisions seem to come to me often.
The largest decision I have ever made was getting married. Jessica and I decided we don't mind a long engagement to each other. Despite that we moved relatively fast and were married after only a year and a half. The main reason we moved so quickly was because I had decided I was ready to join the air force. I was almost at my weight limit, running on a nightly basis, but then other decisions caught up to me. Things that cause stress. We ended up having our apartment in South Dakota being in a kinda bad neighborhood. Money was tight and we were not happy living somewhere so cold and not being truly still on our own. I ended up gaining my weight back, plus some extra. That was the last draw and so we moved to Utah to start over.
Upon moving here things quickly got better. I found a temp job quickly. Jessica was hired immediately at her current job and our quality of life improved. This is where the second most important decision of my life comes in. After a few months I decided I was ready again and went to talk to the local Air Force recruiter. I started losing weight, every 2 weeks I would check in with my recruiter having lost more and more, impressing my recruiter and ensuring my spot in the United States Armed Forces. But one thing I learned from all this is that sometimes you just need a change in scenery and you need to do it without help from anybody else to do it. Because of all this, as mentioned above, I start BMT in seventy three days.
That of course brings us to current day. I am waiting, working at my dead end job, ready for the next step to increase our quality of life. As mentioned above our actions have consequences. I have feelings about these consequences. Being in the Air Force means more opportunity to invest my income. Right now a large majority of it goes to rent and food. Once I'm done with BMT and Tech School the military will help with housing and food allowances. That's where the quality of life gets better. More financial stability and monetary comfort. But then the second half of that coin is that I will be working harder for money income. Working more hours, and on top of that I will have Deployments and Temporary duty. Which means less time for me to enjoy that money with my wife until I either decline re-enlistment when my six years are up or I retire.
How does all this make me feel? Any emotion you could think of all comes to play at the same time. Happy to be with a loving wife, sad to be away when my country calls, proud to step up and serve a noble cause, depressed for extended away time from Jessica, and many more emotions. But the one driving force that makes me want to do this and continue my path is because I know in my heart it will make me a better more responsible person for Jessica, that I will be more stable once we have kids and be able to say that I've stepped up to something 99% of the country is either unwilling to do or is incapable of doing. And those reasons alone will be my driving force.
