Honestly I was going to have a sweeter post title than what I had, but I forgot what the person who told me it said. In past posts I said something to the effect of how I should write some of the more clever things that are said throughout the week down.
Can you read what Laughlin's shirt says? It reads, "an awkward morning beats a boring night." I think that was a self-motto a couple of years ago in Green Bay, but I just smile at it remembering the crazy times those days carried. Which brings me to an interesting thought. I'm still very young, I realize this, but it is amazing to me being able to look back and see all that I've done so far. In a way that's why I write down what I've done. Many years from now, those after me may want to know what boot camp was like, or what I thought of Japan. Time is flying by which is good. I want the rest of my life to begin ASAP.
Though I remember mentioning last week that nothing much was planned for this week, I was partially wrong. First of all, I submitted my tuition assistance chit to my chain of command. Each fiscal year, every sailor at our command is allowed $4,500 dollars in tuition assistance (TA). I went for broke, I'm taking 16 credits between 31 Aug and 24 January. That's a $3,200 bill the navy will pay for college. TA is different from the GI Bill. As most of you know, I'm not eligible to take the GI Bill until I reenlist for 36 months AFTER my initial 5 years are up because I took the loan repayment program to pay for all my federal college loans. If I can secure a bachalors degree before my first enlistment is up, and that's the way it's looking, I'm going to have to look long and hard about reenlisting to secure the GI Bill. Then again, if I do the EOD thing like I'm currently penciling in, then I will stay in longer.
Wow, I'm getting off track and started to write a constant stream of consiousness. My point to the above paragraph is the navy is paying a lot of money I would have had to find as a civilian I don't have to just to pay for college. If I put in enough time and if I become eligible for the GI Bill, then that's a helluva lot more money for college when I get out. Do I want to spend all that time in the military though if I already have a college degree and there's a job market for my intended major (political science)? Or do I stick it out so I can land my masters in public admin too? I suppose I'll be asking myself a lot of hard questions in 1,303 days when my first enlistment is up. Too much depends on where I am in my naval career. What rank I am, what's my job, where I'm stationed, am I in a relationship, health of my family, etc.
I'm going to be SO busy through the holidays. For the entire month of August I'm taking the EMT-basic class. The more watch-standing qualifications I have the happier the command is with me the more leverage I have in requesting certain things. Plus EMT class gets me out of the pharmacy which is always nice. Starting in September I'll begin going back to college (intro to sociology, a class I earned a D in at UWGB so I have retake and intro to psychology. You bet I'll be talking to Neuman more). Also in September I'm going to begin the process in moving off base. I get paid a lot more money once I live off base. More freedoms too and more responsibility which I am thriving on.
On top of this, I will be buying a car. Hopefully by the end of August. I remembering last year I wanted to give myself a birthday/Christmas gift to myself with a car. When I found out I was coming here I threw that thought out the door, but it's now looking like a reality. Rumor has it another corpsmen is selling his car for $800. That would be bank. This way if anyone comes to visit I can be there in my car to pick them up at the airport, and when I get my own place they'll have a place to stay. This is a continuous work in progress, but the busier I am the better.
I had an interesting conversation with an old friend back home regarding me and being as busy as possible. I told her I want to be as busy as possible because a) I have nothing better to do while I'm over here and b) it keeps my mind off of the things that are bothering me back in the states. The whole wishing I could be there with everyone, but not being able to theme primarily. Also seemingly getting the middle finger from those who I wanted to be closer to. This isn't just subject to one particular person.
Back to why I'm going to be busy. Next weekend I'll have a basic scuba diving class. It cost $300 so it better be good. I'm taking it because it will be a good scale to see just how comfortable I am below water. You know, for future career plans. I'm looking forward to it, and hopefully I'll land a couple of good pictures.
Also, in a deal I struck with my LPO to be able to take all these classes for college, I have to "give back" to the command. That means I agreed to get on a schedule to complete a bunch of "required" corpsmen courses and basic military knowledge courses. Though they aren't technically required, my LPO wants to see them done, and if I want to get what I want (in this case an abnormally high number of classes covered by TA) I need to make her happy by getting these courses done.
On top of all of this I plan to still continue coaching on a volunteer basis. I'm trying to max out my volunteering so when I leave here the organization who I volunteer for, MWR, will put in a letter to recommend me for the outstanding volunteer ribbon. You could say I'm a whore for eye candy. That's the ribbons and awards we wear on our chests. This dates to right before I was leaving for Japan when my mother asked me if I'll come back with more than just the two ribbons I was currently wearing on my chest.
We had a mock PRT (Personal Readiness Test) on Friday. It's push-ups and sit-ups in 2:00 and a 1 1/2 mile timed run. Well, in my group who did it, I scored the highest in sit-ups (98) and push-ups (80) and finished third in the run (11:58). You can land the push-ups and put out on the sit-ups, but if you don't stick the run, everything you did was in vain, and that's what happend to me. I was looking to run a 10:45, so I was very disappointed/embarrassed. I contribute 3 reasons why I flopped on the run. 1) it was abnormally hot when we ran. I usually PT at 0430-0645, but we didn't start the PRT until 0715. I was sweating balls out there and it was getting to me. Plus I couldn't sleep the night before since I was too excited though I was hydrated enough. 2) I did a poor job in getting the blood back from my arms to my legs for the run. After the push-ups we have 10 minutes to start the run. When I started the run though it felt like my legs were still cinder blocks. Needless to say I was facing adversity from the get-go. 3) We run on a track. I wanted to split a 3:50 my first lap, but when we ran past the starting line we were splitting a 4:05. That played mind games with me and really got in my head. We will have another run in a month, but if we don't agree to start the PRT earlier in the morning when it's still cooler I will push to swim the PRT instead.
A Chili's resteraunt opened on base this week, and Darryl came with me on Saturday night. I had a gin martini and a tall boy draft of MGD and I was feeling too buzzed to have another drink. I'm becoming too much of a softy. The food wasn't too bad, and I think this was the third time I unknowningly ordered the triple fajita meal. The last two times was in Chicago. Seemingly a little pricey, but that is probably because it's the first resteraunt on base that serves actual food. It's funny because two corpsmen are the new bartenders and I had to chuckle to myself watching them. They seemed lost behind the bar: looking at drink recipie cards, pouring shots out of jiggers, and just looking uncomfortable all over. Made me wish I was back there owning the bar how I thought I did at Victoria's in Green Bay.
The week looks open for possibilities. I have EMT class every day, I'm going to start pounding more pavement and putting on the milage in my running routine, and follow-up on buying that car. Oh, on Monday, I was on pool deck on practice when Chief Clay came by. He was on our relay team and I networked with him well I thought. We were talking about my career development board and how my chief essentially ignored me when I told him I wanted to cross-rate to EOD. He asked me who he was and I told him. Apparentely they served on the USS Essex together when my chief was a 1st class petty officer. He told me that he'll talk to him for me. So I wonder how that conversation turned out.
Morale is high. I have tons on my mind, and I often lose myself in thought thinking about near everything. LOL I guess it's noticable to other people too because someone called me on it. Maybe I'm seemingly grumpy a lot of the time because people disrupt me in my train of thought.
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