[JPH]

Moderators: I will gladly delete this post if you feel I have stepped out of bounce on this one. After reading the above post I found myself reminiscing and felt I could be of some help.

Respectfully,
JPH


Dante,
I would like to take the time to open up a line of communication with you. First off I am not a QP and I am not enlisted with any part of the military at this time… I am however preparing for SF and hope to be an 18E, if the needs of the army will allow me.

With that out of the way, you sound as squared away as any one your age if not more. You where polite and professional in my opinion when you posted, for that I thank you even though this is not my home.

I feel, based on your writing that you are most likely a lot like me when I was in high school. Therefore I would like to see if I can provide some guidance. The following are only my personal opinions, and I do not know your situation therefore I can not provide a check list. However I think you will find that there is a guiding theme in the following outline of ideas, that is that it is up to you to broaden you horizons and expand your knowledge base and become a productive citizen.

“I was thinking of doing it again (home school) for the rest of my high school career” -- IMO a lot can be learned from “having to deal” with peoples BS. In a public school no mater how small you will have to deal with those whose ideas are different than your own. This can be a real pain in the a**, I know. My experience in a public high school involved lost liberal teachers who for the most part had given up on the students. I was surrounded by those who didn’t care or wouldn’t work for anything. There where drugs, fights, mindless BS of all types. However I learned to stay strong in my beliefs. A few times I had my eyes opened to things I had wrong and I also gained a greater understand of why the world works as it dose. Again just my .02
If you want to make more of your education look into advanced education opportunities within your school. My school had a program called A+ which was a state funded program that let juniors and seniors take afternoon classes at the local community college. I took classes in electronics as this was my passion, however classes in auto mechanics, welding, communications, computers, and so on were offered. This is only one way to further educate yourself. If they don’t offer it, save some of that summer work money and enroll in a night class your self. As you grow older you will find that one think that really makes a man is what is between the ears and how well he can use it. Additionally if you are looking to go SF, these men are thinkers, not mindless bodies rooming the theater waiting for the next set of orders. This forum alone is a great example of this as we have doctors, lawyers, RNs, EMTs, SF enlisted and officer alike, so on and so forth…

Second you talked about enlisting first and then going 18x. It is my understanding that 18x is a no prior service option… i.e. if you are prior service you have to take other routes… do you own home work here, I have not looked in to every option because I know what I am going for and I have no prior service to worry about.

Ok now that I have touched the two main topics that you mentioned in your post I would like to take a bit of time to out line some other options you may have not thought of.

Don’t create a box that you can’t see out of, don’t rush the most important decision you will ever make. I have had to sit through 5 years of liberal a**ed college getting a degree that I will never directly use. Note the word directly, as I have learned a lot I would have never learned anywhere else while I was in school. I have wanted to drop out nearly every day for the past two years just due to the BS level on campus, however I found the strength to not quite no mater how depressing it got. Additionally I learned a lot about myself, how to motivate myself from within, how to study topics outside of my normal course work, and how to develop resource networks locally to make myself a more well rounded person. If you don’t see the value in these items then I suggest you get back to high school, don’t quite, and re-read this at the end of every year until you do. If you do understand the value then keep reading…

I suggest that you create your own list of qualities and skills you wish to develop. Then set your mind to developing them. I was a Boy Scout I learned a lot from that and I still remain active as an assistant scout master. I learned the basics of orienteering, first aid, cooking, communications, shooting, survival, government, leadership and much more. The quality of this information is highly depended on the quality of the men leading your troop but I was lucky and had quality leaders. I enrolled in the classes and became and EMT-B, that's an emergency medical technician, the guys in the ambulance, you mess up we pick up… and other renditions of the saying.

I am working on my amateur radio license or HAM ticket as it is also know as. I am reading books on antenna theory and have been pursuing a job with a local business that deals with two way communications so I will have a network of experts to ask questions of. I read history, I watch the news and then research what is said. I volunteer with locale SAR teams, emergency groups, and the sheriff department of the next county over. I work on map reading and compass work as much as I can. I am blessed to have a firearms instructor locally that is the real deal, in that he teaches real combative techniques, I DO NOT think you should place this high on the priority list as if you don’t learn it right the first time you will spend the rest of your life trying to get it right. Old habits are hard to kill…. However this is a HSLD example of finding an subject matter expert and asking respectfully for guidance. Most professionals are willing to “bring the next generation up” into their trade, use this, one day you will have to give back….
I have traveled to Europe and Latin America I have studied an additional language. I have chosen to take my elective hours in political science, history, communications, and media instead of art, pottery, or computer animation.
I took it upon myself to learn some computer languages, I am not an expert but I now have a base knowledge and understand where to get the information and what questions to ask if I ever need to work with this…

I work out everyday, and in high school I ran cross country. I eat as best I can and take care of my body as to prolong my life, increase the quality of it, and not be a burden to the world.

I could go on for hours and not list everything; this is because it is not some written plan for me it is a lifestyle of personal development. I get up every day and ask myself what am I going to do to make myself a better person, citizen, warrior, etc. Every time I see a problem in the world I don’t just bitch, I ask myself how can I be the change I want to see, how can I lead by example. I try to surround myself with people I can learn from…

Read everything you can here on this forum, and feel free to ask question to me if you don’t feel they belong in the forum. If I don’t have the answer then I will try and find it, as this will further educate me… I wouldn’t rule college out completely, at lest not until your last year. University life isn’t for everyone. If it isn’t for you, don’t just rule out all secondary education, look into a quick two year trade school, learn as skill or skills. If you just want to be in the army they will teach you a lot, if you want to contribute to the army bring yourself to their doorstep armed with knowledge and a wiliness to learn and they will add to it.

Lastly you are young, stay on the 10 and 25 meter targets for now and don’t sweat the small stuff to much.

JPH