I hate goodbyes! I should have known that being in the military would come with many goodbyes, but I didn't realize it would be this hard! I think people in the military have a special bond because after 5 minutes of knowing someone you feel like you have known them your whole life.
Today, AZ class 260 graduated (this is my class!). I couldn't be more excited to be done with this chapter in my career and to move onto bigger and better things, however; the end of school brings goodbyes, which I HATE!
My fellow Sailors will be here a little while with me while we wait on our hard copy orders, but my Marines are leaving tomorrow. These guys have basically become family & have been right by my side for the past 2 months of endless mods that require us to keep each other awake for. I never thought that I could become such good friends with people in such a short amount of time, but it has happened time and time again.
Special shout out to PFC Marrero...day in and day out you have encouraged me to keep going and to not give up. Breaks in class would have been boring without our endless games of slaps and awesome notes. Thank you for making me smile & laugh even when I wasn't have the best day and thanks for letting me vent and talk about basically whatever while you patiently listened. You suck for having orders to SD, but I know you will love the west, and if you don't, at least enjoy it for me! Remember I'm only a phone call, text, or e-mail away if you ever need anything or just need someone to talk to. Thanks again for being such a great friend!
There are so many more people that have helped get me where I am today and without them I would never have the strength or motivation to carry on each and every day. Things are hard in the military but things can also be really great. The people I have met along the way have become part of my military family and we will forever serve as brothers and sisters and we will always be there to help encourage each other to push past the hard times.
I love what I am doing and where my life is going, but goodbyes are definitely the hardest part.
P.S. I was selected to recommended for AAP (advanced automatic promotion) which means I will put on Petty Officer 3rd Class automatically without having to take the test!
Friday, November 4, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
1, 2, 3, this is what I asked 4!
Well, I officially have my verbals for my first permanent command! I will be stationed in Norfolk, VA aboard the USS Eisenhower (AKA the "Ike"). I have very mixed feelings about being stationed on the east coast. I was really hoping to get stationed in San Diego so I could be close to family & friends, but I guess everything happens for a reason. It will be a new experience and I will meet so many new people and see so many new places!
My former roommate from A-school is also going to be on the Ike, which I am super excited about! SHSN Schroeder is going to make being away from home so much easier! My instructor AZ1 Green is also headed to the Ike. More than likely we will be working really closely together. She is a tough one on a good looking uniform and knowing what you should be doing. I am excited to have someone who will be such a great mentor in my office!
For anyone that is interested the facebook site for the Ike is:
https://www.facebook.com/cvn69
And their official website is:
http://www.eisenhower.navy.mil/
I will be graduating A-school on Friday & I hope to be home within the next two weeks! It sucks to be away for so long! I am so thankful that I have met such great people that have helped get me through the hard days and encourage me to keep going when I don't think it's possible anymore! I can't wait to come home and see all of my family & friends though!
My former roommate from A-school is also going to be on the Ike, which I am super excited about! SHSN Schroeder is going to make being away from home so much easier! My instructor AZ1 Green is also headed to the Ike. More than likely we will be working really closely together. She is a tough one on a good looking uniform and knowing what you should be doing. I am excited to have someone who will be such a great mentor in my office!
For anyone that is interested the facebook site for the Ike is:
https://www.facebook.com/cvn69
And their official website is:
http://www.eisenhower.navy.mil/
I will be graduating A-school on Friday & I hope to be home within the next two weeks! It sucks to be away for so long! I am so thankful that I have met such great people that have helped get me through the hard days and encourage me to keep going when I don't think it's possible anymore! I can't wait to come home and see all of my family & friends though!
Friday, September 2, 2011
Remember Me.
I never knew being an alumni would be so hard.
I miss my Alpha Phi's...
There are a lot of thoughts going through my mind on this topic, but I don't know how to put it into words.
I miss my Alpha Phi's...
There are a lot of thoughts going through my mind on this topic, but I don't know how to put it into words.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
I'm back...
Well I have been cut off from the world for the past two months and it feels weird to be back!
Bootcamp was a really good experience & oddly enough, I had a really good time! I'm going to try to include all of the details about my journey, but I'm sure I will forget something along the way.
To start off, when I landed in Chicago, we flew into a "storm" which just happened to be a tornado. I spent the first hour in Chicago hiding from a tornado in a staircase, fun right? Once the storm was gone, we mustered up and checked in, then we waiting for the bus to take us to base. We got on the bus at about midnight, and drove the 30 minutes to base to begin P-days. We got off the bus, filled out some paper work, peed in a cup, and got our all inclusive seabag, which included the only stuff we could have for the next 8 weeks. We boxed up our civilian stuff (cell phone included) and shipped it home.
We were then taken to our compartments to meet our RDC's (Recruit Division Commanders) and see where we would be living for the next week. We marched in a single file line into our compartment, and being the person I am, the first thing I did was smile (BAD MISTAKE!) My kind smile was responded with "Female, fix your face!" (little did I know, this was coming from the RDC who would be my biggest motivator) The next 12 hours were kind of a blur for me, mostly because I was running on about 4 hours asleep and was on over 24 hours awake. The rest of the week was filled with stamping & stenciling all of our new clothing items and learning how to properly fold and stow them in our lockers.
I was volun-told that I was going to be the divisional yeoman. Basically I was in charge of doing all of the paper work for all of my fellow recruits. I had to make sure that they got to all of their medical and dental appointments and anything else that they had to do. It was a super busy job but it kept me busy and made my days go by quickly. It also gave me a lot of time in the office to miss out on beatings and to get mentoring from my RDC's.
The next significant event that occurred happened one day after one of our first PT sessions. We were leaving Freedom Hall (the gym) and the sky was a little cloudy, but nothing new for Chicago. Being the new recruits we were, we were leaving late & we were struggling with getting lined up. Once we finally got on our way, it was like any normal day, until the wind started blowing & the tornado sirens came on! I looked to my right & I saw a tornado forming! The entire division starting running faster than I had ever seen any person run before! All of the closest buildings were locked so we had to go back to our ship, which wasn't too far away, but far enough to not be close enough in a situation like this! Who would have known that after 20 years of never seeing a tornado, I would come to Chicago and see 2! Luckily that was the last one for the rest of my time there.
Week 5 started all of the fun activities! We kicked it off with live fire! Shooting was so much fun...they rushed us through it but it was still a good experience & now I really want to get a 9MM to play with :)
After that we had Marlinspike. Marlinspike is a ship that we practice working the lines with. We learned how to come into and leave ports & how to respond to man overboard. It was really cool to see the motivation and learn how to do everything.
Then we had firefighting. Who would have ever guessed that I would have liked firefighting so much! I had a blast...it was cool to get to do something that will be useful for the rest of my life & it's something that a lot of people never get to do.
We had a total of 6 major inspections (which I passed all of them!), our swim (which took me twice to pass, but I passed), and 3 PFA's (I failed my first run at 15:56 and passed my last one at 13:36). I would say that's some improvement.
I won the Navy League Award, which is the 2nd place award for the entire training group (which was 586 people). I was pretty happy about that. My chief told me that I had a perfect interview, except that I answered all of my questions standing at parade rest (oops!)
Overall I had a great time & met some amazing friends & people that I hope to stay in contact with for the rest of my life. I owe a lot to my RDC's, they continued to push me and motivate me when I thought I couldn't go anymore. All of my shipmates said that I acted like my 3rd RDC and I started to agree with them after awhile. She is an amazing woman & if I'm half the sailor she is, I will be happy.
Currently, I'm located in Meridian, Mississippi (AKA hell!) This place sucks so far! The airport is the smallest thing I have ever seen and we are in the middle of a freaking forest. It's really pretty but that's about the only perk. Its hot and humid all day, every day. The galley food sucks & we have to PT harder than we ever did in bootcamp. I found out that the AZ's here (I'm an AZ) do all of their training & PT with the Marines, so I'm going to be one in shape mo-fo when I get out of here!
Lately I have been missing everyone a lot. It's weird to have communication but know that I missed out on everything that happened in the past 2 months. I tried to catch up on facebook, but it's hard. I miss my Alpha Phi's more than anything. It's so hard being so far away from all of my sisters. I knew that being an alumni would be hard but I didn't know it would be this hard. I miss you ladies! AOE!
I think this is enough for now...
Bootcamp was a really good experience & oddly enough, I had a really good time! I'm going to try to include all of the details about my journey, but I'm sure I will forget something along the way.
To start off, when I landed in Chicago, we flew into a "storm" which just happened to be a tornado. I spent the first hour in Chicago hiding from a tornado in a staircase, fun right? Once the storm was gone, we mustered up and checked in, then we waiting for the bus to take us to base. We got on the bus at about midnight, and drove the 30 minutes to base to begin P-days. We got off the bus, filled out some paper work, peed in a cup, and got our all inclusive seabag, which included the only stuff we could have for the next 8 weeks. We boxed up our civilian stuff (cell phone included) and shipped it home.
We were then taken to our compartments to meet our RDC's (Recruit Division Commanders) and see where we would be living for the next week. We marched in a single file line into our compartment, and being the person I am, the first thing I did was smile (BAD MISTAKE!) My kind smile was responded with "Female, fix your face!" (little did I know, this was coming from the RDC who would be my biggest motivator) The next 12 hours were kind of a blur for me, mostly because I was running on about 4 hours asleep and was on over 24 hours awake. The rest of the week was filled with stamping & stenciling all of our new clothing items and learning how to properly fold and stow them in our lockers.
I was volun-told that I was going to be the divisional yeoman. Basically I was in charge of doing all of the paper work for all of my fellow recruits. I had to make sure that they got to all of their medical and dental appointments and anything else that they had to do. It was a super busy job but it kept me busy and made my days go by quickly. It also gave me a lot of time in the office to miss out on beatings and to get mentoring from my RDC's.
The next significant event that occurred happened one day after one of our first PT sessions. We were leaving Freedom Hall (the gym) and the sky was a little cloudy, but nothing new for Chicago. Being the new recruits we were, we were leaving late & we were struggling with getting lined up. Once we finally got on our way, it was like any normal day, until the wind started blowing & the tornado sirens came on! I looked to my right & I saw a tornado forming! The entire division starting running faster than I had ever seen any person run before! All of the closest buildings were locked so we had to go back to our ship, which wasn't too far away, but far enough to not be close enough in a situation like this! Who would have known that after 20 years of never seeing a tornado, I would come to Chicago and see 2! Luckily that was the last one for the rest of my time there.
Week 5 started all of the fun activities! We kicked it off with live fire! Shooting was so much fun...they rushed us through it but it was still a good experience & now I really want to get a 9MM to play with :)
After that we had Marlinspike. Marlinspike is a ship that we practice working the lines with. We learned how to come into and leave ports & how to respond to man overboard. It was really cool to see the motivation and learn how to do everything.
Then we had firefighting. Who would have ever guessed that I would have liked firefighting so much! I had a blast...it was cool to get to do something that will be useful for the rest of my life & it's something that a lot of people never get to do.
We had a total of 6 major inspections (which I passed all of them!), our swim (which took me twice to pass, but I passed), and 3 PFA's (I failed my first run at 15:56 and passed my last one at 13:36). I would say that's some improvement.
I won the Navy League Award, which is the 2nd place award for the entire training group (which was 586 people). I was pretty happy about that. My chief told me that I had a perfect interview, except that I answered all of my questions standing at parade rest (oops!)
Overall I had a great time & met some amazing friends & people that I hope to stay in contact with for the rest of my life. I owe a lot to my RDC's, they continued to push me and motivate me when I thought I couldn't go anymore. All of my shipmates said that I acted like my 3rd RDC and I started to agree with them after awhile. She is an amazing woman & if I'm half the sailor she is, I will be happy.
Currently, I'm located in Meridian, Mississippi (AKA hell!) This place sucks so far! The airport is the smallest thing I have ever seen and we are in the middle of a freaking forest. It's really pretty but that's about the only perk. Its hot and humid all day, every day. The galley food sucks & we have to PT harder than we ever did in bootcamp. I found out that the AZ's here (I'm an AZ) do all of their training & PT with the Marines, so I'm going to be one in shape mo-fo when I get out of here!
Lately I have been missing everyone a lot. It's weird to have communication but know that I missed out on everything that happened in the past 2 months. I tried to catch up on facebook, but it's hard. I miss my Alpha Phi's more than anything. It's so hard being so far away from all of my sisters. I knew that being an alumni would be hard but I didn't know it would be this hard. I miss you ladies! AOE!
I think this is enough for now...
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Final Countdown
Yesterday (June 6) marked the beginning of the 30 day countdown to bootcamp! Since graduation, it seems like time has been flying! I know they say time flys when you're having fun, but my days have been full of, well...not much! I have spent a lot of days babysitting my adorable little 4-year old, Taylee and most other days are filled with cleaning or grocery shopping. I started running/walking with my cousin Krikit at 6:30 AM, and that lasted a grand total of 4 days before I got lazy and started not waking up to my alarm clock. (I'm going to get back on that...I promise!)
Sean came down to visit for 4 days & he always makes me remember why we are such good friends! I had so much fun with him. He took me on a mountain bike ride, and needless to say, I officially suck at riding a bike! I haven't been on a bike in probably close to 10 years and then you put me on one, on this itty bitty teeny tiny trail that has about a billion and five rocks on it...yeah, I almost died, but it was a good experience! We also spent a day up at my cabin, we took a long walk & just talked. I'm going up to visit him next weekend and I can't wait! His family reunion is that weekend & so I'm kind of nervous to meet everyone, but it will be a lot of fun!
This week I am in Cedar. I had my 30-day yesterday & then I have my DEP on Saturday so I figured it would be easiest to just stay down here with Kelly. I am working at Facilities, training the girl that took over my position, for 4 hours a day & then Kelly and I are planning all kinds of epic adventures. Today when I get off work we are going to go on a hike.
Oh, and the end of this month I'm going to the Kid Cudi concert!! SO EXCITED!!
Up until the time I leave for bootcamp I will be pretty busy...for those of you that are curious, here is a breakdown of my June...
6-11: Cedar
16-19: Vernal
20-22: Cedar
27: Kid Cudi Concert!!
29-30: Cedar
....and July 6: BOOTCAMP!
Sean came down to visit for 4 days & he always makes me remember why we are such good friends! I had so much fun with him. He took me on a mountain bike ride, and needless to say, I officially suck at riding a bike! I haven't been on a bike in probably close to 10 years and then you put me on one, on this itty bitty teeny tiny trail that has about a billion and five rocks on it...yeah, I almost died, but it was a good experience! We also spent a day up at my cabin, we took a long walk & just talked. I'm going up to visit him next weekend and I can't wait! His family reunion is that weekend & so I'm kind of nervous to meet everyone, but it will be a lot of fun!
This week I am in Cedar. I had my 30-day yesterday & then I have my DEP on Saturday so I figured it would be easiest to just stay down here with Kelly. I am working at Facilities, training the girl that took over my position, for 4 hours a day & then Kelly and I are planning all kinds of epic adventures. Today when I get off work we are going to go on a hike.
Oh, and the end of this month I'm going to the Kid Cudi concert!! SO EXCITED!!
Up until the time I leave for bootcamp I will be pretty busy...for those of you that are curious, here is a breakdown of my June...
6-11: Cedar
16-19: Vernal
20-22: Cedar
27: Kid Cudi Concert!!
29-30: Cedar
....and July 6: BOOTCAMP!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
I'm back
Well I am officially a resident of Carbon County again...I put in a change address request at the post office, so I guess that makes it official. Since I have been back, I have managed to kind of make my room mine again, I have put up pictures and taken down all of the stuff I had up from high school. I might be back, but I am definitely a different person than I was when I left.
Since I have been back, I have done....well....not a whole lot! I have done a lot of babysitting & hanging out with the family. Two nights ago I hung out with some people that I went to high school with. It was cool to see everyone and just relax.
The group...Dustin, Loren, Tysen, Me, Kris, Kattie, Shane, Kylie, Jordan, and Jake
(a few people missed the picture)
Other than hanging out with this group, I have been sitting at home. I have managed to make myself eat healthier (basically I don't go out to eat everyday) and I have also done some form of exercise everyday. Mainly push-ups and sit-ups every night. I have started running (and by running I mostly mean walking) when I get up in the mornings. Hopefully I start getting better at all of that.
I had my recruiter put in a reclass request, which would change my job in the Navy & could possible require me to leave for bootcamp earlier than planned. I really want to get the reclass because then I would be doing the job that I really want to do, but it also scares me that I am not fully prepared to go and I could go any day. For now, I'm just taking it one day at a time and trying to prepare myself as best as I can.
I miss Cedar & my wifey.
Until next time...
Friday, April 29, 2011
Ending & Beginning.
I have officially completed all of the coursework for my BS in Business Management!! HOORAY! These past two years at SUU have definitely made me a different person. I have laughed, cried, gotten in trouble, and grown up in so many ways. I have made friendship that will last forever & met people that will forever be in my life. In honor of the past two years, I'm going to make a list of some of my favorite memories.
- Living in Eccles C 405...there was rarely a boring moment in our little apartment! Alex, Talysha, Jessica, & Mariah (even though she didn't really live there) made it so much fun! Karlee was by far the best RA ever! I got lucky to be thrown randomly into a room with such great girls!
- Alpha Phi!...there are not enough words in the English language to describe how much this organization & these women mean to me. Alpha Phi has made me a stronger leader and I have found my best friends within this organization. I am going to miss chapters, Italian Wedding, Formal, Sisterhood Retreat, Initiations, & everything else that goes a long with being Phi. Holding the positions of Marshall & MDC Senior Rep has deepened my love for my wonderful chapter even more! I am going to miss seeing my sisters every day!
- Hanging out with the men of Sigma Nu & Sigma Chi.
- Spending so much time with Sean.
- Meeting my roomie/wifey/bestie/slut Kelly Ann Rodkey...I honestly do not know what I would do if I had not met her! She truly is my other half and we have so much fun together! It is going to be so weird not living with her & I'm going to miss her like crazy!
- Meeting Jake, Kort, & Kellan.
- Enjoying classes that I couldn't stand only because I loved the people in my classes!
- Working at Facilities Management.
Now that I am done with school, I have some exciting things to look forward to:
This weekend: SLC Supercross!
Next weekend: Graduation!!
The next weekend: Moving home...
July 6: Bootcamp!
I have a lot of work to get into shape both physically & mentally for the Navy, but I can't wait! It will be such an amazing experience and I can't wait to proudly wear that uniform and be able to serve my country and travel the world!
Until next time...
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