Last summer was the greatest summer of my life. I can’t recall of a time in my life when I learned or grew more than the summer of 2015. At the age of 19 I made the biggest decision of my life. I was tired of living a life of no direction, tired of doing the same things every day. I decided to join the United States Army, to serve my country and to learn about who I am, away from my friends, family and all of the distractions of this world.  

While all of my friends was at the beach or partying till the sun came up I was in a place with no contact to the outside world. I learned what discipline meant, and to focus on what matters most in life. Basic training was the hardest time of my life I had to survive for 3 months while constantly sleeping for 4 hours or less, I had to survive being screamed at, cursed at and regarded as the lowest form of human life on earth. The worst part of it all was not being able to talk to my family and friends and of course learning how to eat all my meals in under 6 minutes. I have always been an athlete and I knew from day one that the physical challenges would be something I would do well in but what I didn’t account for was all the mental challenges I would had to face.

During our first week of basic training I saw 10 of my friend’s faint from exhaustion and dehydration and most of them not make it. Another challenge had me facing my fear of heights by jumping down a wall 75 feet high.    Although I went through a lot of challenges and hard times in training I had the most fun of any period in my life. I was taught to shoot guns, throw grenades, fire a rocket launcher at a truck and do a bunch of things that I would I have never had the opportunity to do. The best thing about basic though was I learned how to carry myself, how to be disciplined and that I could survive through anything.