Final
draft
By becoming a Marine I was able to fulfill a dream I had
since I was a young man. I knew that I would be pushed to extreme limits no one
could possibly fathom not even your truly. I desired a challenge. I wanted to
train with the best and be part of a team with men who also longed for the same
thing as I did. To be among the few and the proud, and amidst of the ranks of
the supreme men that the United States had to offer. Another crave I had was to
be physically fit like the famous soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo who plays for
the team Real Madrid. I hoped to do some traveling outside the U.S. not just
visiting Mexico like everyone else, that just wasn’t good enough for me. I
yearned to meet people from different backgrounds and diverse cultures as well
as experience how other people lived they’re lives in order to appreciate mine
a lot more. After seeing the horrible conditions other nations have it around
the world, I love my life and my appreciation and love for the U.S. grew
stronger.
As a kid I always dreamed of joining the military but to
decide which branch to sign up for would be difficult. The typical choice for
everyone who has thought about the armed forces has always been the army
because they hand out many benefits and give bonus pay to whoever enlists with
them. Also the fact that they do a great deal of recruiting through the media
like newspapers, magazines, movies, billboards and even video games. One day at
my old high school named Gardena high out in Los Angeles we had a presentation
by the good old boys from the army and I was stoked about what they told us and
the things that they do on a daily bases. After school on a nice warm L.A.
afternoon I walked home just thinking about the exhibition that was given at
school. When I arrived home I seen my neighbor working on his 1974 Yenko Chevy
Nova super sport boy was she a beauty. I walked over to him and told him about
the cool army guys lecture they gave us kids at school and how excited I was to
be just like them on day.
Up until then I never knew my neighbor to such detail and
on that afternoon he opened up to me big time. Now this neighbor of mine was a
big guy and just by one look he was intimidating but to me he was just Freddy a
big teddy bear who wouldn’t hurt a fly. He told me if I want to enlist in the
armed forces why not go with a winning team like the Navy. I never really
thought about another branch but what he told me that day was outstanding. He
told me he was a former sailor but not just any sailor, he was actually a
former Navy SEAL. Freddy talked to me about what the Navy had to offer and a
few things he had accomplished while he was enlisted. He mentioned to me about
the countries he’s been to, the weapons he has used, and the big battleships
he’s been et cetera.
Well that did it for me and ever since then I wanted to
be just like him, a Navy SEAL. Little did I know that my mind would change yet
again. An uncle of min died back in 2006 and at his funeral I ran into one of
my aunts who is my father’s oldest sister, aunt Socorro. She told me that her
husband my Uncle Joe wanted to speak to me and I had no clue about what because
I had not seen or spoken to Uncle Joe for a couple of years. I got around to
looking for him and I found him outside in the parking lot with other uncles
having a beer. I yelled out “hey Uncle Joe!” he smiled and replied “hey nephew
how have you been?” he shook my hand and gave me a hug.
One night during the summer after my finals at the great
Imperial Valley College I told myself “today is the day.” So I road I my bike
down Aten road and enlisted with the Marines. It took me seven days to sign up
and get shipped on over to boot camp in lovely Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San
Diego. During my time in boot camp I got more than I could chew. The entire
first month I cursed my Uncle Joes name and told myself “What the fuck have I
got myself into! This is hell on earth!” Little by little those insane drill
instructors broke me down and built me back up into a physically fit, hard
charging, lean and mean war fighting machine!
I love those men for what they transformed me into, they
made me become an image of them. After all those three Marine drill instructors
were all combat veterans and two of them had the honor of being infantrymen.
The other who was my favorite drill instructor and a pain in the rear was in
fact a Marine Corps Scout Sniper with a purple heart so you know he seen action
and caught a bullet. When I successfully completed boot camp in three months I
graduated. Both my parents showed up with other family members for the ceremony
including my infamous Uncle Joe and boy was I glad to see him there. When my
family saw me they hugged me and shook my hand including old Joe. He said to me
“Welcome to the brotherhood nephew this is your second family now, make us
prouder then you did today!” I replied “Yes sir, thank you sir!”
In conclusion, during my time in the corps I learned a
great deal about life and by that I mean not only did I learn how to conduct
myself as a respectable man and Marine but I learned about having respect for
many other people, places, and things that I never did before. I met the
greatest bunch of multicultural men and women from all over the U.S. and from
every corner of the world. Having friends like the ones I have today is something
more than just being your regular buddies from back on the block, we share an
unbreakable bond between us that not a lot of people out there will ever
understand. They are forever my brothers for life, until the day I die. In
joining the Marines I got what I always wanted because I had finally fulfilled
a boyhood dream that became a reality. 
