First ROTC PT

Today, I was lucky enough to experience two firsts: first ROTC PT and first time driving in the snow with a RWD car.

Lets begin my day:

0500: Woke up, completely tired. Had to drag myself out of bed. Put on all my winter PT gear, which consists of: shortsleeve ARMY shirt, ARMY shorts, long sleeve ARMY shirt, ARMY long pants, ARMY jacket, long socks, running shoes, reflective belt, hat, and gloves. Needless to say I was bundled up and ready to go by 0520.

Get out to my car around 0525, and its covered in snow and fresh snow is falling all around me. I clean my car off wiht my handy $1.00 scrapper from Wal*Mart. Hop in and start to drive to Washington University. Half way up my block, my car is sliding and slipping everywhere. It's rear wheel drive..seriously thought I'd crash.

0610: Made it to Washington University, had to text Lee a few times to find the building. Finally found it and went in...thats when I realied I had forgotten my water bottle.

0630: PT starts. We strip off our winter PT gear, so we are left in our shorts and t-shirts. So we begin with stretches, easy enough...Then we jump into pushups. We did three different types of push-ups: close armed, wide armed, and deltoid. Reps of 30 each. I wanted to die. My arms were like jell-o, and I cheated a bit on some of them. I know, I know, I was only cheating myself, But this was my first PT so I'm cutting myself slack.

After Push-ups we did stomach exercises: swimmer legs for 1 minute, followed immediately by scissor legs for one minute, followed immediately by figure 8 legs for 1 minute, followed by leg up and downs for one minute...thast right 4 minutes of pure hell on my back.

After that was over, we got a water break and i LOADED up on water. When I returned to the gym we di suicides..and they were suicides. I havent run in so long, that doing 3 sets of suicides made me want to kill myself.

After that, we did runs across the gym and back, 10 times. We did three sets of those. I only was able to do 2 and a half. I had this amazing cadet on my team, and he cheered me on the entire time. He was awesome, I wish I could remember his name so I could add him on Facebook and give him a proper thanks for his support.

PT was a lot of fun todday, and I can't wait until I'm able to do an entire PT without wanting to quit. :)

Class A Uniform

Today I was issued my Class A uniform! The fitting took forever, and I came out of it with: slacks, a skirt, two blouses, bow tie, two pairs of shoes, hat, ROTC insignia.

Putting on the uniform was so much fun, I know this will make me sound stupid but I loved catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror in my uniform, I felt like a soldier.

First ROTC Lab

Just got back from the longest most exciting lab of my life! Today was also the first time I was able to wear my ACU's. I felt like such a part of the team, for the first time. It was so awesome to be there with the rest of the Gateway Battalion.

In lab tonight, I learned many things about battle formations and entering buildings. We carried model riffles, and holy crap were thye heavy! I wear they must have weighed at least 10 pounds, holding them up for a long time sure gets tiring! I spent probably a half an hour of the two hour lab laying on the hard concrete floor holding this riffle up pretending to shoot the enemy. I have blisters on my hand from my ring and the gun, next time I'll have t remember to remove my ring before lab :)

My squad leader is so nice and helpful. I really love the family feeling in the ROTC.

The military ball is next weekend, I get my Class A uniform tomorrow! I'm really excited to go!

I'm too tired to write anymore tonight, all in all lab was awesome.

Fight

Hey guys, thanks for following, I know this is exciting haha.

Todays post isn't so inspiring, in fact it's quite depressing. I'm going to talk about me and my roommate our how we are fighting. Over the Army. He believes that me joining the Army means I'm going to "get brutally raped, whipped and murdered. All for 5 powerful men." He said me wanting to join the military is me being brainwashed and there's no cause for me to fight because it's just rich man arguing.

It makes me sosad to know thatpeople think this way about our troops, our troops aren't BRAINWASHED they WANT to serve our country, these brave men and women have given their LIVES so we can have the freedoms we have today. they FIGHT so people like my roommate won't be forced to with a draft.

Now he's texting me telling me how I'm "selling my soul and my heart" to the government. God, people can be so narrow minded. I can't even comprehend it.

People like him are the reason our troops are so looked down upon, why their funerals are boycotted, why they get no respect, and yet these loyal men adn women still fight so that way people like my roommate can have the right to say the bullshit he does.

He also said that I should never have children because I'll be incapible of ever loving anyone, and since I'll be trained in combat naturally that means I would abuse children. is this man crazy or WHAT!!??!

He thinks he can change my mind, or that I am stupid for not thinking about torture or dying. But what he is refusing to understand is that when I made the concious decision to join the US military I thought long and hard if I were willing to give my life for people like my roommate. i came up with the conclusion that yes, I'm ready to give it to my country. I am here to answer my country's call and if people like my roommate cannot comprehend that I feel so very sorry for him.

Our troops aren't just for killing and torturing people. We don't harm innocent people, or steal from them. We aren't out on our own agendas. We are here to protect the USA, we are sworn to protect our country and our fellow citizens.

What happened to the day when it was honorable to serve in the military? Why is it such a stigmata now? What's wrong with me being a woman and wanting to serve? For the love of God, this is the 21st century. Let's embrace our country, let's have pride in it once more.

I know I will continue to get asshole's opinions on the military, but nothing will change my will to be there to fight, protect, and defend my country.

My Journey Begins

I decided to start a blog about my journey from a civilian craft-loving, sparkle chasing, puppy hugging girly-girl to a second Lieutenant with the US Army. *sigh*

So I guess I'll start with how my life currently is. I'm a junior at Saint Louis University. At the moment I live with my best friend, his corgis (who drive me crazy), my two kittens, and my cute as can be Chihuahua-Maltese mix puppy Athena! Can you tell I just love cute things?

Anyway, that's our home. Crowded, but full of love, always a wagging tail waiting for you to walk through the door. Let's see...I spend a LOT of my time creating craft projects.. I even sell them online at Etsy, where I have three different successful stores. I make jewelry, and wedding hairpieces, along with selling jewelry supplies.

My favorite color is pacific blue.

My favorite food is mac and cheese.

My favorite thing is Swarovski crystals.

Here I am, I just joined the ROTC Gateway Battalion. I'm on my way to becoming an officer with the US Army, and I simply cannot wait! Serving my country is in my blood. I am a first generation American, and from the time of Sept. 11, I wanted nothing more than to serve the good ol' USA. I believe I can be a strong leader for America, protect the rights we cherish, and lead our troops to victory. I want to stand up for my country, I want to show that there is still American spirit in our broken country. I am an America and I will proudly serve my country.

Today, I get issued my ACU's and PT uniforms. It's official!