Starting Line

Can we all just take a moment to breathe please?

sigh.

thanks.

As you know, I have spent the last week trying to get into the Army National Guard. 

I went in, passed all my tests, and the system to enlist people literally crashed. What? Naturally that would happen to me right? I worked my butt of to get to that point, and my congratulatory moment was sitting in a federal building for 5 days. Yippee. 

Let me rewind a couple days to explain all that went on in those days. 

DAY ONE: The first day I went to MEPS (Military Enlistment Processing Station) was absolutely terrifying. They are not mean at all, they do this all the time.. so their humor is dry and they don't put up with any sort of nonsense. I walked through the doors at exactly 6:10AM and began my looooong day. After being processed I got to go to a testing room to take my ASVAB and DLAB test. The DLAB is the hardest Military test you can take, and they constantly remind you of that. In order to be in the intelligence field I needed at least an 85. SPOILER ALERT: I did pretty good on my DLAB and passed it. :) I finished up my day at around 12:45, knowing I had to come back that next Tuesday for my physical. 

DAY TWO: The physical. Need I say more? I got to MEPS again at 6:10AM, but instead of going into testing, I got to go straight to Medical. Let me just tell you how fun that is. (warning: dripping with sarcasm) It only takes about two hours, but is hands down the most uncomfortable two hours of you life. In most cases after you pass Medical, which I did, you would go to your liaison and go over your contract, swear in, receive your uniform and go home. BUT I was informed that the system that they use to get soldiers training seats was down. I sat around and enjoyed Criminal Minds until 4:00 when I got to go home. 

DAY THREE-FOUR: I really don't have a lot to say for these days. I came to MEPS at 9:00AM and sat around watching TV and eating cold sandwiches till 4. Being a huge waste of space. The one good thing was the kindness from the workers. I had such a great time getting to know them. We all loved cursing the computer system that was STILL down.

DAY FIVE: WOOOOO! I'm sorry but that is all I have for today. I got through the rest of my processing, signed my contract, and got sworn in as a 35F Intelligence Analyst for the Army National Guard. I even got my uniform today. Exciting is not even enough to explain how I feel. I'm so thankful for all the MEPS workers, my amazing recruiter, and the couple people who helped me trudge through the hard days to get here.