Marine Corps OCS

This summer I will be shipping to Quantico, Virginia for Marine Corps platoon leaders course. It is a rigorous 6 week pipeline where candidates undergo military discipline, principles and training. There is an overwhelming amount of information and stress and not enough time to deal with anything, its similar to being force fed by a fire hose. This will be my first increment of OCS and the more I hear about it, the more I am dreading it. You can expect 2-3 hours of sleep per night, assuming you don't have duties and fire watch. You have five minutes to eat a full meal without toughing the table or having a conversation. Everything is done at a faster pace than you can move, you are yelled at for six weeks constantly by Sergeant Instructor Sergeant_________. Tension builds and people snap and drop out or are injured during training. Attrition rates for 1st increment juniors are roughly 1/3 - 1/2. Its gonna be awesome!!!!!!!!!!

AAHHH! Finals Week

It's coming up fast and I'm very busy cramming for tests. Everything is really stressful for me right now. I shouldn't be bitching though, everyone else is in the same position as I am. The year is winding down and classes are coming to an end. This is great! The year went by fast when I look at it but not fast enough. I cannot wait to go home and enjoy summer for a little while at least... Sooner than later it will already be time to go back to school and begin the study grind again.

Final VOICE essay

Life’s Ability to Shape Minds

A person naturally tends to conform to their surroundings and adapt to what is around them, this statement also holds true to all living creatures. The way in which someone is brought up can often determine their views, personality, emotions and ultimately play a huge roll in who they become and what they make of themselves. All of these categories fall under one characteristic, this characteristic is voice. Each individual has their own voice which is used to express themselves. Voice can be portrayed in almost any way imaginable. In the film, “Smoke Signals” by Sherman Alexie, the voice of a young Native American is portrayed throughout a long journey to find oneself. I am also on a journey, this journey is known as life and it is comprised of many small journeys and adventures that will ultimately make me who I am. Voice is shaped by ones experiences and feelings and interactions throughout their own life and it is constantly evolving with new and foreign exposures to people, places and things.

Sherman Alexie does an excellent job of portraying the voice of two young Coeur D’Alene Indian boys on a journey to collect ashes of one of the boys’ deceased fathers. On this journey the boys become young men and their voice changes from experiences they had over the course of the trip. Victor and Thomas are the two Native Americans that the movie focuses on; they both have a strong sense of pride in their heritage and in coming from the reservation. Each of the boys learns a little over their journey and it changes their outlooks on life. Thomas is the “medicine man”, he is constantly telling stories and sharing his thoughts and Victor is the “warrior”, he is calm, reserved and has steel nerves. Over the course of the movie, they rub off on each other and new traits and ideas are gained by each of them. Victor becomes more open and sharing and Thomas becomes more determined. Experiences that they had and shared throughout their lives on the reservation; and experiences that they had on their journey changed them to ultimately make them who they were. This is shown in their voice.

I don’t remember much of my childhood, but from the fragments I remember life was good. I was born in the town of LaCrosse, Wisconsin, when I was only 4 months old my family moved to San Antonio, Texas. My dad was a flight surgeon in the Air Force and he was stationed at Wilford Hall Military Hospital. I lived in Texas for four years. Some of my earliest memories there consist of playing in the mud and catching toads and lizards that my mother would soon be prying off of my hand with a butter knife. At the age of 4, I moved to Spokane, Washington when my dad got out of the service, by then I had a little sister too. I grew up in Spokane and spent the majority of my life there. I went to a catholic school and went to church twice weekly, and then onto a public high school. My parents kept a pretty tight leash on me growing up; in the long run I think it was for the better even though I didn’t think of it that way at first. I landed a job at a butcher shop in 8^th grade; I started out doing a lot of cleaning but by my sophomore year of high school I was cutting meat and waiting on the counter. I worked with some really cool people, and it made work seem more like getting paid to have fun and less like a chore. All of these experiences up until present day have shaped my own voice and made me the person that I am today. Every day I am exposed to new conditions and circumstances; some even change my opinions and alter my “voice.” I would say that college has done that the most for me. It has opened my mind to the world around and current events, just as Thomas and Victor opened their minds while on their journey in “Smoke Signals.”

Individual’s voices are expressed every day. These “voices” are formed through life’s experiences and offerings. The way in which someone is brought up can often determine their views, personality, emotions and ultimately play a huge roll in who they become and what they make of themselves. As a person progresses through life and is constantly forced to conform to changes in environment and surroundings they change. As they are exposed to new people, places, and things, their views and voice changes. In the film, “Smoke Signals”, Thomas and Victor go on a journey and throughout the course of their journey they each make impressions on each other. This causes them to change. While a person continues through the journey of life they are exposed to many different experiences that shape them and determine their own voice.