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I had an argument with my father a couple of days ago, and it led me to want to post about it. But I figured if I was gonna talk about myself I may as well be thorough, and decided to give some background.
For the most part I wouldn't consider there to be any serious punchline in this, so if you don't want to read about my life, I'd stop reading here.
A little more than 2 years ago I started going to college.
At some point in my freshmen I got a call from a large business asking if i wanted to follow through in an interview for an internship. However as it turned out it was an internship for engineers, and I was a computer science science major. So I passed on it. I figured if I was getting offers this fast in college more stuff would probably come. In hindsight I regret not following through even though I doubt I'd have gotten it.
Fast foreword a bit, to the end of my sophomore year. My gpa is ok, 3.1 or 3.2, but I still haven't gotten any job or internship, which was causing a fair amount of friction between me and my parents. I've failed one class, Japanese 2, but it was because I planned to retake it.
I had also put off signing up for housing for to long and I entirely missed the sign up period. So I couldn't get into school housing for the next year. I wasn't to worried however, I figured something would come up. The school didn't end up getting any random openings for apartments/rooms, so I started looking for off campus housing. There are a couple of apartments, about 10-15 minutes away. But the closer ones are fairly expensive. I eventually get an offer from a student who is looking for a roommate, with an apartment pretty close to school at low cost.
However by this point my mom has made it clear that she isn't going to pay for any apartment. She wants me to commute from home as a lesson about responsibility or something, as well I think she believed being able to watch over me would improve my grades(A poor assumption in my opinion). The commute is an hour each way to get to college. This didn't make me happy but I didn't want to take out any loans, since I'm not a fan of debt, so I started commuting.
Now in my junior year things are going somewhat poorly. I'm failing artificial intelligence, and it's causing me a lot of stress, the prolog assignments were more difficult than I expected. I eventually caught back up, on my missing assignments since my teacher was more lenient for late work.
At some point during my junior year, my mom walked in on me at around 2 am playing video games on my laptop. I don't remember exactly what she said but the message was something along the lines of, "if your not going to take college seriously why didn't you just join the air force"(Both my brothers are in the air force). Being rather disenchanted with college at this point, as well as not enjoying living at home with my parents I take this as an opportunity to say, I wouldn't mind joining the air force(not my exact words).
A couple days later my mom comes back and asks if I'm serious, or if I was just saying that because she was in my room at 2 AM. I say I was, and end up calling the air force recruiter.
I passed the basic check and did good enough on the mini-asvab so I ended up getting sent to meps, to take the main asvab. I studied a bit and ended up getting a 99% percentile which made me happy, though sadly, I didnt do as well as my brother. He got 99 on all 4 portions of the test, whereas I got something like a 99-99-98-96.
So since I did good enough on my asvab I got sent back to meps to take the physical. Which I also pass, though I didn't enjoy the blood test. It was the first time I'd ever had blood sucked out of me.
At this point I'm accepted into the air force, and I'm waiting to get assigned a job, and a date to get sent to to basic. I also wasn't planning on waiting to finish college, I was joining right away, once my semester ended, IE I dropped out of college. Since I now have a job lined up, the air force, I stoped caring about college. I end up doing badly in most of my classes. Badly = failing. My parents weren't to happy about it but, whatever. I will probably regret it later, but I don't particularly regret it now.
A couple of days ago I found out when I would probably get shipped out for basic(less than 4 months), as well as what my job would probably be. It wont be finalized for a bit more time, but I have no reason to think it will change.
So I tell my dad that I'm probably shipping out in a bit less than 4 months, and he suddenly tells me that he wants me to get a job or leave the house. This took me rather off guard since normally it was my mom who really wanted me to get a job, and one of the reasons I joined the air force was to get one.
Well my mom hears us taking and walks in. It ends up getting resolved, and by now its blown over.
On a side note I really have to emphasize how much of an impact commuting to college had on me. In previous years, I very rarely missed class but now that going to college took, 2 hours of driving total, I started skipping a lot. It's really hard to convince yourself to go to a 1 hour long 8 AM class, when you have to drive for 2 hours.
TL: DR . Dropped out of college joined air force, waiting to get sent to basic.
  
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To me it reads as you weren't too happy doing what you were doing, so you purposefully didn't care enough about it to continue with it (not bothering to sign up for housing in time, figuring something would just fix itself somehow, failing a class instead of getting a bad grade because 'you would just retake it', etc).
I think you did the right thing skipping out and going to the air force, it will be something you pretty much have to commit to, and it seems like you weren't too happy with the situation you were in.
Hope it all works out well for you.
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spent 4 years in the AF. shouldnt have got out. easy job i ever had if u dont mind being away from "home" if that matters at all
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how long will you be in the airforce? What are your plans there, do you intend to make some kind of career there?
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aebriol: your right I wasn't very happy with college, but I did want to retake Japanese. I failed out because I was doing poorly in the class and felt things would get worse as the class got harder, I figured it would be easier when I retook the class, which obviously now won't happen.
Err to expand on this, I would have taken Japanese in my last semester, but it was actually cancelled at my school. Apparently what happened was not enough students were taking Japanese so the cancelled it.
polarwolf: I signed up for 6 years. I don't have any plans really, I figure I can figure out if I want to stay longer or not during those 6 years.
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with the economy getting worse, what you're doing now maybe the best decision you have ever made. you can always come back and finish your degree
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Nothing wrong with getting yourself out of a situation you know isn't right for you.
6 years is a long time though...
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Calgary25998 Posts
Can't the military pay for your schooling if you join them afterward? Seems like the best of both worlds - take whatever you want until you get a degree and then go to the military which you were planning to do anyway.
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1 hour commute time is not long, takes me twice that to get to work and the same to get to college...
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you drove 4 hours a day to get to school and work? I meant 1 hour each way. Your job would have to pay alot to make up for gas cost of 4 hours.
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the one hour commute is one way, and so i can sympathize for when i used to go to school myself. of course for me, i used public transit and it was a lot easier on my in general too (not a morning person at all).
i'm assuming you had quite long breaks between classes? otherwise you wouldn't travel to and from for just one morning class.
it's interesting to me that you say you're not a fan of debt. i have a friend who (without going into it too much) puts off going to school because he is actually very afraid of carrying debt. he spends a lot of his time on starcraft, though plans on going to school. he wouldn't budget some of his income to have a better playing experience and to have a better PC for work or school.
none of this has changed for him throughout the entire last year despite all the time myself and others have spent encouraging him and laying down facts---and the fact is, i can see many parents, including my own, feeling a lot of burden for a child who's trying to go to school.
i just think that some things are really worth paying money for. in this case, it may not be money that you even have yet, but very few people have the right amount of money before they want to make major changes to their lives, and it gives you something (even as a tool) to commit to.
i think you have the right idea, is what im trying to say.
i know that my "friend" isn't going to change for a long time from now, and by then, it might be extremely late. i'd like to say he has hope, but he's constantly downed by his fears, that's just the thing.
i think that when you've established a toehold in anything, the rest starts to become history once you really start to move forward. this has all been really off-topic from me, but i hope you get some good luck !
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On January 06 2012 07:21 Chill wrote:
Can't the military pay for your schooling if you join them afterward? Seems like the best of both worlds - take whatever you want until you get a degree and then go to the military which you were planning to do anyway.
They will pay for a degree, so if they pay for a 3 year degree it will be for 10 courses a year for 3 years. Thus, if you fail a course you have to pay for it. Also, my roommate took too many electives, and had to take an extra course on top, and the air force wouldn't pay for that either.
Gotta actually work 
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Hopefully joining the airforce will be a positive thing for you, then you can return to school. Good luck in your future!
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United States404 Posts
First of all you should never turn down an internship unless it's to pursue some other productive extracurricular. If you hadn't heard, unemployment is pretty goddamn high. Secondly, it's totally on you to be responsible about housing forms and what not; if I were your parents I probably would have done the same thing. It's not like you can't go to school because you're commuting. My commute was over an hour on NYC public transit each way from grades 8-12 and since graduating from college I take the train about 40 minutes each way on a 70 hour/week job. You should have kept your grades up before leaving college and you should certainly do something with your life for the 4 months before shipping off. I commend you for joining the air force, but your entire backstory makes you out to be bitchy slacker.
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You're lucky! I've been working full time since I was 18 and school full time! My parents said I have to pay bills or get out. I took a year off from school, but I'm about to finish my bachelors next year. I also have to drive an hour each way. Sounds like you were spoiled and didn't want to work
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You had a year and a half to go, you really should have just pushed through and finished. Senior year can be brutal, but finally finishing feels so damn good.
On January 06 2012 10:28 ranshaked wrote:
You're lucky! I've been working full time since I was 18 and school full time! My parents said I have to pay bills or get out. I took a year off from school, but I'm about to finish my bachelors next year. I also have to drive an hour each way. Sounds like you were spoiled and didn't want to work
You know, I think I agree with you. My freshman year I attended a small community college/commuter campus, had to drive 30 minutes each way which was not fun. I ended up getting a shitty on campus job working in the "computer center" and my boss was one of the biggest dicks/tools I've ever met. The job was awful. But the whole thing ended up leading to a serious IT job for a state institution for me when I switched schools, and now that I have just graduated I've come out some some decent job experience and good references. Never know where you can get once you start trying.
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When I was going to college, I only had a 15 minute commute, and I even hated that. I think I ended up sorta lucky there. Still though, you can always go back to college to finish your degree at a later time ( especially with the G.I bill footing the bill for you.) Or use the money to learn a trade, thats what I would do in this economy.
GL in basic. Long as you are healthy physically, and mentally, then you should have no problem with it. That's the mistake I made, Air Force basic caught me completely off-gaurd. Figured it would be easy. Missed the first plane out there because the people at my MEPS are fucking incompetant. Didn't land in San Antonio till 11 p.m. Didn't get to sleep till like 2 am last night, while they were fucking with us and playing TAPS during the whole 2 hours or so that we had to sleep. It was downhill from there for me. There is a certain way you traverse the "snake pit" as they call it when you go to eat. The people in your squad will fuck up, do not expect to eat much at all during the first week you are there. Anyways, I ended up getting really fucking sick and just miserable in general, everything was kicking my ass. Ended up getting Entry Level Separation and was sent to a Sepper squadron to prepare myself to leave.
I've gotten over it, yeah it would have been nice to stay in because the economy went to shit when I got back, was really hard to find jobs around here, but whatever. I don't beat myself up over it.
Well, if you aren't going to be working then brush up on stuff before you get there, so you will be going in ahead of everyone else from the start. I will give you a general list of stuff that will make things easier if you already know how to do them:
- Learn the AF ranks (both enlisted and officers). Be able to distinguish them from their emblems as well. They will force you to study them anyways, but I wish I would have just learned all of that by heart before I even got there. It's just one less thing to stress about.
- Learn basic marching maneuvers. Again, one less thing to worry about.
- Look into the basics of being an Entry Controllers. This is the Air Force equivalent of the firewatch in the Army, and Marines. You basically just have to get up at some random point in the middle of the night and walk around, making sure shit is secure.
Above all else, come there healthy. Be able to run for a long time, be able to exercise for a long time. I ended up getting shin splints again before I went, made everything fucking painful.
If you are looking for more about what to expect in basic, look up everything here: http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/airforcejoin/a/afbmt1.htm
I read that alot before I left, ended up helping me quite a bit.
Good luck op.
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ranshaked: Lol, well I am a bit spoiled relatively speaking, but I dunno, its not so much that I didn't want a job before but I wasn't able to get one. I don't think it's even the economy I just lack that innate quality that people have that gets them jobs. It's probably a combination of not liking cold calling for jobs, and not really being willing to lie about myself.
Enki: Thanks for the advice, my recruiter also told me that I should probally learn ranks ext, before basic starts.
bellweather: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU, also I'm not sure if the economy was as shitty when i turned down the internship, it was around 2 years ago. But yes in hindsight it was a mistake.
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EPT
