24 Days

CAMPBELL AND SGT SHAW ARE MY HEROES!!! I have a paper due for my business class tonight. I had no idea what to write or even how to begin. Sgt Shaw had Campbell go over the info with me and I totally got it. Then Sgt Shaw read over my paper and gave me tips on how to make it better. Thank goodness for them!!! =]

This morning at PT Sgt Shaw had me do crunches and flexed arm hang. I did 66 crunches. The hang...yeah...not so good. Since my best time was 19 seconds, he told me that for every second less than 20 that I was on the bar I had to do 10 push ups. I got up on the bar and hung there till I thought my arms were going to fall off. Then I got down and Sgt Shaw told me to do 20 push ups cause I had only stayed on the bar for 18 seconds. LAME! THEN!!!! Then he made me get back on the bar and do it again! Thankfully I got 20 seconds. =]

25 Days

Here we go. The last few days have been crazy hectic. I went to PT twice today. It was too much fun. I've been bugging Sgt Shaw all week to do the IST. We finally did today. For those that don't know, the IST is the Initial Strength Test. Females have to run 1.5 miles in 15 minutes, do 44+ crunches in 2 minutes and 12+ seconds flexed arm hang. So far I've knocked out the crunches and the flexed arm hang. Last time we did the run [about a month ago] my time was 18 minutes. I'm not a runner. I hate running. I like sitting on my butt. I have to pass the run though. So, today, I was out running the IST. Sgt Shaw was yelling at me. I was slowing down, but I was 3/4 of the way there. I couldn't stop. He told me if I passed that he would buy me ice cream. I walked for maybe 10 seconds and then started running again. Then I walked for a little more. By then I had maybe 100 yards to go so I just sprinted the rest of the way. I finished and looked up at Sgt Shaw. He looked happy...but not. He showed me the stop watch and I couldn't believe it. I was thrilled, but pissed. 15:27. 15:27!!! I shaved 2:30 off my run time...but I still failed. Sgt Shaw kept telling me how much I had improved and all I could think was "I failed". He told me he didn't expect me to pass. He was proud of me for my improvement. He told me that if I hadn't walked I would have passed. I was PISSED, but PROUD!!! I failed, but I improved. When we got back to the office he told me there was something he wanted to give me. We went out to the car and he dug around in the trunk. He pulled out a Marines t-shirt and told me I earned it. I'm so proud of myself.

28 Days

Well, today was uneventful. There's really not much for me to write about. There was drama with a friend from school. Then I talked to my recruiter about stuff that's going on with me. Then I talked to my mom about our vacation. We're going on vacation before I ship. We need to spend some mommy-daughter time together before I go away forever. Okay, I won't be gone FOREVER but we still need to hang out before I go. We're going to go to San Diego. Ironic, no? That's all today cause it was crazy boring.

29 Days

First things first. Sorry for not writing yesterday. I had a really busy day. I went to work out with my recruiter for almost 2 hours. We went for a 2 mile run and did a bunch of other stuff...pull ups, push ups, flutter kicks, hello dollies, side straddle hops [aka jumping jacks], the WORKS!!! Then I came home to relax, but didn't end up doing much relaxing. Then, by the time i had time to write, all I wanted to do was sleep.

Today. Today, today, today! I went to my youth group this evening, as I typically do on Sundays. I was prepared for the usual socializing and idle chit chat. What I wasn't ready for was the wave of emotions that washed over me. While the band was performing, I couldn't help but look around me at all the other students. One particular group caught my attention. There were three freshman girls directly in front of me. I watched them as the music played. About half way through the third song, the girl in the middle seemed really distressed. Immediately, her friends wrapped their arms around her and began to comfort her. I suddenly remembered the days when I was that girl. I realized how many good friends I'd be leaving behind. As I stood there watching those girls, memories of my last few years in the church came flooding back. I looked around at the familiar faces and realized how few of them I'd truly gotten to know over those years. It occurred to me that most of them won't even realize that I'm gone, and those that will notice will get over it. Most of my friendships have been pretty shallow. Now it seems too late to really change that. Pretty soon, I'll be making new friends. Hopefully, I will have learned from my past mistakes and won't treat them the same way. I'm really sorry about the way I've treated my old friends. I wish I had taken more time to get to know them and have closer relationships with people. From now on, I'm going to make an honest effort to be closer to my friends.

Intro [31 Days Remaining]

The main purpose for this first post is just to give a quick introduction. Just to get you up to speed on what has happened up to this point. In December 08, I decided to do one of the craziest, and most honorable, things I can imagine. I decided to enlist in the Marine Corps. I went in ready to go. I wanted to get enlisted and shipped out ASAPronto, as my recruiter would say. Sgt Shaw, the aforementioned recruiter, had different ideas. Long story short, he had me jumping through flaming hoops of doom in order to enlist. For starters, he had me working out at 0600 every day for 2 or 3 weeks. A lazy couch potato teenager getting out of bed at 0500 to work out is nothing short of miraculous! Finally, on January 24, 2009, I enlisted. Since then, I've been working my butt off to get in shape in time to ship out to MCRDPI [Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island] on March 23. This is the unofficial kick-off of the 30 Day Count Down. The reason it's unofficial is two-fold. First of all, I have 31 days left. And second, this is only a tiny intro. The real stuff will be better. More tomorrow.