Beginning My Journey

My journey to become an american airman started many years ago, as long ago as I can remember. I spent the early years of my life living with my mother and sister at my grandparents house in Michigan while my dad served in the army. Growing up in the 90's I watched the Power Rangers fight Evil Rita to save the planet. I dressed up as a power ranger for Halloween ready to defeat the putty patrol. I have always wanted to be a superhero, there to help others in their time of need. The turning point happened when I was 11 years old, an impressionable age near the end of being a "little kid". I was in the 6th grade in art class at South Elementary School in Danville Indiana. The tardy bell rang but our teacher wasn't there yet, none of my classmates seemed to mind as they talked to there friends. After several minutes our teacher entered the room, something was wrong with her, her eyes were puffy like she had been crying and she didn't give us anything to do, we just worked on homework for other classes all period. The rest of the day 6th graders were doing ISTEP testing (Indiana Statewide Testing For Educational Progress). I noticed that every teacher I had that day seemed sad and spent a lot of time on the phone and computer. Throughout the school day they kept calling over the PA for students whose parents were there to pick them up, it seemed like by the end of the day only half of my class was still there. The dismissal bell rang and we went out to our school buses, as I got on my bus I remember someone telling everyone else to be quiet, the radio was on and they were listing to news reports. After listening myself I understood why all my teachers were sad and why so many parents had picked there children up early, the date was September 11, 2001. It turns out that my school administration decided that if they told the students what was going on it would negativity affect our ISTEP scores, I'm not sure they understood the impact that day would have on the world. My parents took me and my sister to visit New York City for the first time less than two months after 9/11, its a shame that my only trip to such a beautiful city was during such a dark time. So there I am almost 12 years old standing in lower Manhattan of a cold fall day in 2001, I've included a link to our home move of that day.

As I got older I decided I wanted to defend my country, I wanted to join the military. However my parents preferred I go to college, I have never been very fond of school but they insisted that I at least go for one year. Not wanting to upset my parents I enrolled in community college, and I hated it. I struggled through some classes taking several semesters off, not sure of what I wanted to do with my life. When I was 20 years old I moved out into an apartment with a friend of mine. After going to college on and off for five years I decided I was going to return to my dream of joining the military. Fighting on the front lines really isn't something I want to do so that kind of eliminates the Army and Marines, and I'm not interested in spending months at a time trapped on a ship so there goes the Navy. That leaves the Air Force and that's fine by me, I have always loved airplanes I have worked at Indianapolis International Airport for over four years and the best part of my job is getting to work on airplanes. So I want to join the United States Air Force. I created this blog as a record of my journey, wish me luck...