Motivation Pep Talk

Wednesday we decided not to kill our fellow poolees and ourselves. We decided to see what the PFT (physical fitness test) feels like first hand. PFT consist of a three mile run. We ran about three and a half miles, no big deal I had a lot more in me; however, there were a lot of people who didn't. I, by now, realized its all mind over matter. Of course it hurts, of course I get tired, but I always remind myself of the prize that comes later. Its clear that some of the poolees don't think like that and it wasn't just me who saw it. There were several "fall outs." Fall outs meaning people who fell out of formation to stop and puke or cause they were too tired. I would then go back with them to scream at them. Nothing personal, but try to get them motivated. After, we all gathered around and I shared my concern for motivation. We are all family so I let them in on a personal reason of why I do what I do every morning. I'd rather not discuss all of the details but I will say that it has to do with my dad. He once told me that before he dies what wants to see that he's raised a successful man. Since then, I've strived to be the best at whatever I do. Just to make him proud, if he was proud I was happy. Also, striving to be the best isn't a bad habit.

Motivation... Who has it?!

  Tuesday, we had another PT. It was rather difficult, but the point is to make it so hard that you think you can't go any further. When that happens, I usually just push myself harder. This PT made me want to puke, but I don't like to show that my body is saying enough. So instead, I kept it in even if it meant swallowing, yeah, gross. I've learned to never anticipate, so when people ask me what time is it or what we're doing next I just tell them you'll find out soon or just to keep going until we stop; however, a lot of people aren't motivated as much as they should be. I know I am, because, well, I'm doing a whole project on it! Also, there are personal things that keep me motivated for everything not just PT. Private Llambes, a Marine on RA, said sometimes all you have is motivation. Bootcamp gets tough and its a lot to endure that's why you need to be motivated. I see where he's coming from because several Marines have told me that there are times when they've been through so much and their bodies have endured as much as they could, but they had to keep on going. Tuesday also brought out a lot of thoughts of squad leaders from poolees. It felt great that one of the kids actually went up to their recruiter and said this is the only squad leader that I see is motivated and does his best to motivate others as he put his hand on my shoulder. Also, when I was waiting for a ride home another poole, Veliz, came up to me. He said, "Hey man I just wanted to let you know that you're one of the few people that I can look at and I feel motivated by you." This really meant a lot to me simply because Veliz has been there a lot longer than I have and he's just a beast. He's one of the best poolees we have. It was nice to know that someone I kind of look up to, also looks up to me. I feel like I am a great squad leader just because I like to take charge. I am a friend before and after PT I will joke around all day before PT, but once PT starts, I tend to get a little... aggressive. I need them to respect me, and they won't respect me if I'm nice.

no pt?! no school?! beach!?

The monday that just passed as we all know was President's Day. We had off from school and as the President's right hand force, the Marines also had leave from work. Meaning, the office was closed and there was no PT. I was as much excited as disappointed as I was I decided to go to the beach. Being squad leader not only am I responsible for my actions and attendance, but I'm liable to my squad. I called my recruiter, Sergeant Packard, to confirm the rumor of no PT but he did not pick up right before I was getting out of the car. He said there was no pt and that's it, but I was so wrapped up in what I was doing I left my phone and went to the beach. I completely forgot to tell the people in my squad there was no pt! Anyway, the day was perfect for the beach. Nice, warm, and breezy weather. The water was a bit too cold to go in but it was still nice to lay out. Of course, half of Cypress was there. We were there for about three hours, and as everyone knows alcohol and heat are never a good combination. Two random drunken men were making absolute fools of themselves. Then, out of nowhere one starts throwing punches and chokes and spit! The ocean rescue squad came and long story short the drunken idiots ruined the fun.

MEPS.. worst place ever.

 When I first joined I wanted to do the reserve program and in the mean time go to college. The longer I'm in high school the less I actually want to go to college. I'm so anxious to start being a Marine already so I figured I might as well go full time. So, I talked to my recruiter about changing my contract from reserve to active duty. He said that would not be a problem and all I had to do was go down to MEPS and do a component change. Now, for anyone who does not know what MEPS is, this may sound fairly simple. MEPS is the worst place in the world. MEPS stands for "Military Entrancing Process Station." Basically, if you join any branch of the armed forces you will eventually take a trip to Miami to go to MEPS. Of course my recruiter wanted to get me there as soon as the doors open at six. This meant that he had to be on the road by at least five o'clock which meant he had to get me at least at four fourty-five. I was up by four in the morning. I am not a morning person whatsoever. Anyway, after actually getting there and waiting for the doors to open we wait for an hour just to get a name tag that allows entrance to most of the building. We got a quick medical examination just checking weight and height and went back to the boring stuff. I sat in the waiting room for about two to three hours. I qas doing what I already did when I went to sign my reserve contract. I swore in with all the rest of the people which were going to the Marine Corps as well. We all shook hands wished each other good luck and waited for our recruiters to come pick us up. This sounds like it was nothing, but trust me if you were in my shoes you'd want to pull your hair out.

PT.. Bootcamp style

  As I stated in my earlier blogs we often meet new Marines on recruiters assistance. One way they assist the recruiters is by running PT for them. Well, when you have newly born Marines straight out of bootcamp they tend to remember the kind of torture that was done to them a lot easier. Point is, its extremly tough when they come out to do it. Some of the things he told us to do I thought were completely impossible. I guess that's the mental toughness part. Monday, a fellow squadleader and I ran PT because the guide wasn't there. Whenever she can't go she always asks me to take her spot. So, of course we made them hurt. The next day never got any easier. I'm starting to realize that anything related to the Marine Corps is a lot easier when its over, if that makes any sense. Tuesday, was more teamwork with fireman carries and drags and runs around the park. Sounds a lot easier than it really is. Wednesday they decided to introduce circuit running to us. Long story short, circuit running sucks. We sprint about a football field then immediately go into some type of exercise for a certain time interval. As soon as time is up, we sprint another football field and etc. I was hurting for about a week, yeah, that bad.

See you in three months..

  Last week, a fellow poolee, Travis Hull, had a "going away BBQ." I realize since I won't be leaving for another five months or so I will be meeting a lot of new people and seeing a lot of people leave. This really sucks because I am so anxious and grow only more anxious to leave. Anyway, it was freezing but of course he still had the BBQ on the beach. Its pretty cool how his family treated me because I was also a future Marine. I recognized his cousin as a fleeting Marine MOS 03 infantry. He and I started talking because I knew I knew him from somewhere I just could not remember where. He said he ran PT one week at the office and I immediately remembered. He asked me when I leave for bootcamp and I told him in July, he shared that he's going to be deployed to Afghanistan while I'm in bootcamp. We all played basketball, which was kind of hard thanks to the wind. We ate and finished by having a cake with the Marine Corps insignia, the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor. After that, everyone, including me, started packing up and went on their way. I shook Hull's hand and wished him goodluck to write to the office when he gets his platoon and everything. It takes about a week so we should be getting his address soon. I intend to write to him so he can tell me a little about bootcamp from his perspective.

WISE journal 9

     If you were on school on Thursday, then you probably saw a mass crowd around a Marine hummer. Well, Daniela and I were the ones to make that happen. Wednesday after PT my Gunnery Sergeant asked me to get approval from the school to do a "Pull up Challenge." Immediately after I got home I texted my mentor, Coach Love, because she knows almost everything about the school. She told me I would have to ask Caruso so I had Daniela go because I couldn't during second hour. I told her to ask for a DJ that was my idea of getting attention that idea, however, got denied; although, with a bright red hummer and seven Marines attention was not really a problem. It was interesting to see how other people reacted to the presence of the Marines. Alex, the security guard, was excited and put everything down to shake the hand of my recruiter, Sergeant Packard. We stood out for all four lunches in the heat getting peoples information and looking for more to recruit to the Corps. Also, it was kind of funny to see the "jocks" and the guys that think they're SO big do the pull-ups. Little did they know, all of them were doing them incorrectly. After D lunch, I helped them set back up to go back to the office, then went home.

WISE journal 8

On Tuesday, we had yet another PT. Except, this pt wasn't physical it was more mental. Instead of doing what we usually do PFC Curtis decided to teach us some of the basic drilling techniques that we will learn in bootcamp. The Marines are extremely competitive so they feel that whatever recruit that comes from our office has to be the best. If you've ever seen a drill it looks really easy, that's what I thought. Its actually a lot harder than it looks. You have to be mentally and physically disciplined. Any type of movement or anticipation of an order is considered undisciplined. On Wednesday, they planned to have fun. I always enjoy a hard pt because it pushes me to my limits and only makes me better. Also, I learn how far I've come. We had to go on a steep hill and pick a partner around our weight because we would be carrying them. I always pick my friend Bizmark Mendoza mostly because he and I are alike: we never quit and we always give our best. We had to fireman carry each other up and down the hill four times and then run a lap around the park. After that, we went to the other and steeper side of the hill, still in partners. We had to wheel barrels up the hill and sprint down. We did that maybe 6 or 7 times then we took a jog to the football field. This is where it started to get really difficult. We had to sprint half the field low crawl a quarter get up and sprint the rest and all the way back. We did this three times and in between we all got "ITed" for not sounding off loud enough. IT stands for intensive training, yes it sucked. My logic is if I work hard now I have to work a little less hard in bootcamp.

WISE journal 7

   Monday was yet another PT day at the office. This PT was fairly easy nothing really too special. There's a new Marine here on recruiter's assisstance, I like that he pushes himself and us for the physical part, but to be completely honest I don't really think he's all there mentally. The worst part about becoming a part of something like this is that you can't get too close to anyone. Over these past weeks I've made friends within the poole. Which kind of sucks because you get pretty close with these people and then they leave. We found out that about three to five people are leaving on the upcoming monday. It's bitter sweet because you want to see them go and be Marines, since that is the whole reason everybody is there, but at the same time its hard cause they're friends of yours. Also, it sucks because I have to wait until I graduate in order to leave. I knew I had a long time to go, but seeing everybody leave makes me more anxious and frustrated! I want to leave already!

WISE journal 6

On saturday we had a poolee function. That's basically where everyone who's waiting to leave to bootcamp gets together with their recruiter and let's them know if anything has changed that would prevent them to leave to bootcamp. Usually, the recruiters have something planned for us. I remember my first poolee function was the combat fitness test. That was the worst thing EVER invented. My second was a touch football game with a little thing they call circuit training. That's also the worst thing ever. Yesterday, they got orders from higher up to run an IST on us. An IST is an initial strength test. This includes a mile and a half run in under 12:30 do at least 6 pull ups and at least 60 crunches in 2 minutes. My first IST was really bad since I was so out of shape and my second one was a big improvement, but those were only practice and didn't count; however, this time a captain and the sergeant major of the Marine Corps were there watching us. No pressure or anything, right? I did pretty well on the pull ups as usually with seventeen. I really don't know what happened with my crunches but it upset me when I only got 60. I guess this helped fueled my motivation for the run. Especially being a squad leader you need to be a "stud" at everything. I honestly did not know if I could improve since I improved by 2 minutes plus on my second run from my first run. I ran a 13:34 the first time and a 11:07 the second. Either way I ran hoping to beat 11:07. So I ran and of course I got tired at the end, but I'm really competitive and don't like to see myself be beaten. A friend of mine was barely in front of me and Gunnery Sergeant Chanchay was yelling to sprint and past him. I have no idea where I found this type of energy to sprint for a good 30 seconds and past my friend to get a time of 10:19.

After everyone finished the IST, we started practicing drilling. I thought it was so cool, we looked like recruits at recruit training. The Marines walked around and did to us as the drill instructors will do to us at bootcamp. They went around trying to make us laugh trying to make us move. Some of the things I over heard and saw were pretty funny, but I knew I couldn't break my poise and bearing or else they would come and pick on me- especially as a squad leader. After drilling, we awarded the newest members of the poolee, meaning people who just enlisted. We gave them the welcome aboard ceremony that we all got when we joined which I personally enjoy just because I get to see what motivated others to join. After all that, we sat down with two Marines for about 2 hours and they told us stories of their experiences at bootcamp. They also gave us tips on what to do and what not to do. For example, I thought this was the funniest, one of them asked their senior drill instructor to make an "emergency headcall". (Headcall meaning restroom visit.) his senior drill instructor then made him run around screaming the sound of an ambulance.

WISE journal 5

   On Wednesday, our guide, which is the highest amongst us, was out and asked me to take her place that I would be guide when she left to bootcamp. I was honored and excited, that was until I actually got to the office. The Marines said that they were going to run PT. It was probably the most challenging, physical, and mental PT we've had in a while. I usually like when they run PT because its a guranteed workout, but I thought a lot of us were going to die. Some threw up, some quit half way through, and some did not even show up, but not me. After PT the Marines sat us down and explained why they are as tough on us as they are. They went on to explain the brotherhood of the Marine Corps. That every Marine should look out for the Marine next to them. One day, they will be leaving the Marine Corps and they feel the only way to give back to the Marine Corps is by training and getting better quality Marines to replace them. After that I realized, I have to strive to be the best if I'm going to replace the best.

Wise Journal 4

On tuesday, we again had pt. I can feel myself getting more physically fit, I was actually asking for a hard pt. I met yet another Marine on RA (recruiters assistance). I think what I enjoy most is at the end of PT when everyone gathers up and asks the Marines questions they may have about bootcamp. So far, everything about bootcamp doesn't really make me nervous except the gas chamber. Last night, another poolee after PT asked about it. The Marine looked down and just laughed and described just about the worse experience ever. He told us how the gas looked like how they make you take your mask off and gave us some tips on how to deal with it. I always try to listen and remember them because I know soon enough I'll be in that position. What intrigues me is the amount of courage not only in myself, but in others around me. To know what we are all up against and no one raised they're hand and asked to leave. No one wanted to quit. The Marines are the smallest branch of the military. Only 1 out of 10 people have the courage to walk in the office and enlist. That means that there were 9 people before me that did not want to take on the challenges they would be confronting. Realizing that has made me feel more confident and walk around like I've done something with my life. Before this I had no idea what I was going to do, and the Marines showed me another way.