Alone or Unkown

There have been many times when I have felt alone whether it was decisions in sports or things that I have done in school. I have had many dreams or things I say are my dreams and then they just fade away. There is one dream that has stayed with me since day one. My biggest dream is to serve my country and everyone that knows me well enough knows this. Some people support me in this dream, but there are a lot that don’t and there even are those people that lie to my face saying that they support me when they don’t and it’s obvious that they don’t. I felt different because everyone would say you’re crazy for doing that or you shouldn’t do that what if we go to war which made me feel alone like no one thinks that joining was a good idea.

There have been two people who have supported me the most my mom and dad. It means a lot to be supported through this, especially by my dad when he has gone through the same thing he served in the Marine Corps as a reserve infantryman. I guess this is one of those things that you won’t understand till it happens to you people supporting you is the best thing ever. My dad joined without telling his parents, but he was seventeen and needed their signature and he didn’t tell them they were signing his papers to join the Marine Corps till they were there at the recruiting center. Towards the beginning of the school year, I joined the US ARMY as an active duty infantryman (front lines) I started the process over the summer but it is a long process and a lot of papers you have to sign and tests you have to take.

I am super excited to serve my country and fight alongside a bunch of really good men and women. Me and my dad agreed to keep it a secret and not tell many people and to only tell people if they ask and to the people who care. But when you tell one person that has a big mouth the word gets out fast. We recently had a holiday and I saw some family members that I haven’t seen in a while. The word got out to them while I was at my uncle’s house and they came up to me saying that I “wasn’t smart” and that I was “stupid for joining the US ARMY” and some other things. Normally when I hear things like this from other people I laugh it off especially when people say yeah ok good luck with making it through basic training and you can’t do it I like that when people say this because I use it as motivation and I will say things in my head like “yeah ok that’s a challenge you shall see what I can do when I put my mind to it.” But it’s one thing when it comes from someone who’s not a family member or someone you care about but when it’s a family member that you expect to support you it hurts and no matter how many people support you it doesn’t matter it hurts more than anything you could imagine. I can’t explain how I felt in the moment I just laughed it off and acted normally as if that didn’t hurt my feelings. But my dad saw and overheard this and pulled me away and talked to me about it and he told me “Don’t listen to her” and that “she doesn’t know what she is talking about”. What I am saying is the only people at the end of the day who care or support you are you. Sometimes there are other people like your parents and even family members but at the end of the day, the only person you know supports you is yourself.”

40th Division US Army raising the American flag on captured Hill 1700, Bamban Hills, Bamban, Tarlac, Luzon, Philippines, February 25, 1945. jpg” by J. Tewell is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.