Personal Narrative: My Journey To The United States Air Force Academy

Did I make it? That was the question I was asking myself the night before what was going to be one of the most special days of my life. After being called to leave for Air Force Basic Training on a short 8-day notice, I was now finally at the end of my journey and tomorrow I would graduate and become an Airmen. The nerves and excitement were running through my body as I was unable to sleep in anticipation of the big day. Now the day is here and I get to celebrate all my hard work by seeing my family and earning the title of an Air Force Airmen.

I have been accepted to AFS-USA's international exchange program to Norway. I will be spending my sophomore year living with a host family and going to school at a local upper secondary school. I am awaiting the information regarding where I will be located in Norway, as well as my paperwork for a Norwegian visa. As long as the final stages of my application go through, I will depart this August and return the following July.

How my mentor saved my Air Force career? I was a lost, angry individual because of how the promotions were given out. The Air Force EPR system is an Enlisted Performance Report that every Air Force member gets annually. It serves as a report to rate every Airman, on how they did throughout that year. Personnel are rated from low as 1 to as high as 5. This rating is then used to figure out how many points you will have towards promoting to the next rank. The EPR, is broken down into three sections that an Air Force member must meet or exceed. Those three areas would be: Self Improvement (school, or some type of educational improvement), Job performance, Volunteer. This is where my mentor came in and saved my career.

One of civil air patrol's motto's in the cadet program is "rise to the challenge". When I first joined shortly after my 12th birthday I had NO idea what that meant. BUT over time I've learned SO much about myself and my abilities despite my age. Like most cadets...I want to use MY TIME in civil air patrol to inspire and lead...BUT--most of all I want to offer my service....to my friends , my family and my community....

A true leader stands high on on the pillars of success: dedication, servitude, respectability, and honesty. The mark of a fulfilled life is not one who has collected many awards, not one who has an insurmountable amount of money and fame, it is one who has touched the most souls in his journey of life. A leader destined for greatness will touch many people along their journey to the top. In my short years on this Earth I have made it my mission from the start to leave a lasting impact on everyone I come in contact with and as a student of Howard University I will continue my mission without fault. From birth my parents noticed I had an insatiable thirst for knowledge, a heart of gold and an unconquerable ability to lead. In the 5th grade I was awarded the

In my life, I have had to make made many difficult choices, each with their own consequences, but the most significant choice I made occurred three years ago; I decided to leave my home state of Maine, and enroll in Texas A&M University. This decision has had a major impact on my life, and continues to influence my life today for better and for worse. I've grown to be more independent, but as the same time my debt increases every semester.

In the fall of 2005, I took my first steps onto the campus of Appalachian State University with my sister who was entering as a freshman. One of my most vivid memories from my childhood is walking hand in hand with my then eighteen year old, wide eyed, and prospective sister into the Watauga dorms. Afterwards, as we left down King Street, I distinctly remember gazing back towards the magnificent North Carolina mountains and yearning to stay. Even at the age of five, I knew that one day I would follow in her footsteps and become an Appalachian Mountaineer.

There were many valuable topics covered during my time at the Chief Petty Officer Academy (CPOA), however three of them have and will continue to help shape me as a leader and be useful to assist those I work with at my upcoming duty assignment. There were many take-backs from my five weeks at CPOA; however the three I found the most valuable are wellness/fitness, facilitating meetings, and team building. These three very simple techniques can be quiet challenging for some and do create greater challenges if not used at all.

The Junior Cadet Corps is a middle school organization founded on integrity, leadership, and respect. The junior cadet corps, unlike JROTC in high school, did not garner the highest respect from peers at my middle school. JCC was often viewed as an escape for students from the physical demand of athletics. Unfortunately, many of the students within the class were students who were at high risk of gang exposure and suffered from low income status. Very few took the class with the mentality of being challenged. I was thirteen when I joined the class and I immediately wanted to leave; I was a shy girl with no voice being yelled at and told to do push ups. However, I chose to remain in the class.

Coming from humble beginnings in Taylor, Michigan a medium sized town of 60,000 thirty minutes from the heart of Detroit and living just near Detroit Metropolitan International airport. I was came to be fascinated by anything related to the world of aviation hearing the powerful roar as the engines spooled up and seeing such a massive object like a jumbo jet tumbling down the runway it always amazed me to see such a thing take to the sky. Seeing the airplanes coming in and coming out made me think to myself where the people onboard have been the places they’re coming from, where they are going, all the interesting and far off places that I didn’t know if I’d ever see my lifetime. This inspired me when I was 18 years old to join the United States Air Force and get paid to fix and work on these massive machines.

I am getting ready to go to the United States Drill Sergeant School, May 2011. All I have heard at this point was how hard the school is from everyone in my Battalion. Christopher Peeples had just graduated and returned from the school, so I made sure to discuss the school with him. He informed me that as long as I learned the first three modules, I would be fine. Easy for him to say, I have always been horrible at memorizing anything since I was younger. So I studied the first three modules; the position of attention, the hand salute, and the rest position for the halt.

It was 2047 I was in class full of Freshman's at Fort Osage High School. All of the sudden, we get an announcement from the principal saying “ the school of Fort Osage High School has to go to school year long including June,July and August but you guys get breaks one-week every three months.

Growing up in small town Georgia, there is not much to do in the blazing summer heat. My days this past summer (before I-Day of course) consisted of listening to Zac Brown Band and watching my beloved Atlanta Braves. Listening to music and watching baseball are sources of stress relief for me; the two media outlets take my mind off of hardships in my life. Coming to the Naval Academy was a big change for me, and I felt a little blindsided by the endless rules I was required to follow. I had no idea that freshman here would not be able to rate media. My life at home and at the Naval Academy are completely different. At home, I can always fall back upon the excitement of an upcoming doubleheader, but at the Naval Academy, I must live in a high

It was challenging for me to adapt to the new unique environment of Overland Park. Whenever I decided to go to JCCC, I wanted to continue being an over-achiever, so therefore my first semester of college I got admitted into the Honors Program. It was a huge achievement for me, but the biggest one would be officially attending college. Most of the students I went to high school with decided to only work because they thought about the right now moment and making money as soon as possible. Wyandotte students had a small imagination and didn't reflect on the end goal of being successful. I feel like the environment I live in made the people in Wyandotte County have a lot of restrictions and limitation. From that point on I made the chose that

Ever since I was younger, my dream has always been serving in the United States military. My grandfather was a Colonel when he served his time in the military in Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, he was working with the United States military to take a stand against communism. When my family and I migrated from Vietnam to United States in 2003, I realized that I can finally work hard to accomplish my childhood dream. I had always been thankful for the opportunities and freedom this country has given me and my family. Therefore, I learned not to ever take the things we have for granted. Now that I am older, I want to be able to serve and protect the United States of America. I decided that I want to join the Air Force instead of other