To quote the late Scottish poet Robert Burns: “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” This quote never meant much to me until I watched all of my dreams come crashing down around me on a cold, snowy day in December. I’ll start from the beginning. Since I was young I’d wanted to be in the military. My mother and father always told me stories of their time in the Pineville High School JROTC, (Junior Reserved Officer Training Corps, a type of military training for highschool students) and no matter how many times I heard them I listened raptly, fully engrossed in their tales of Drill Team competitions and bonds that could never be broken. So, naturally, I joined the JROTC program as soon as I became a freshman at Pineville High. I quickly rose through the ranks of the program until eventually I was elected into the position of Battalion Commander, which was the highest spot a student could obtain. I was completely in charge (after the instructors, of course). I was also commander of the Drill Team, a team that focused on crisp precision and synchronization with military rifles. This experience in a leadership position made my desire to join the military grow exponentially. What was once just an interest soon turned into my greatest passion. I knew that being in the military was my destiny, and I would do anything to achieve my goal. As soon as graduation came I was at the recruiting station talking to representatives of the various branches. I had assumed that
