Okay so let’s rewind a little and go to why I made the decision to go into the military to begin with. Life here in DC at that time had stop being fun and folks were gun happy so kats were getting shot and murdered left to right. Now I didn’t have police after me or anything like that but a lot of the stuff I was into and people I associated with would have had my ass in jail so I needed to find a better way.

My first wife (god rest her soul) and I were seperated and I had run out of resources here so I thought going into the military would actually be a good thing across the board. So I signed up. Now I had a strong interest in climbing the rocks like in the commercial they were showing at the time:

And for me that seemed like the route to go but little did I know what I would experience let alone how it would impact my life today. So back to the coming in process…I did not finish high school and the recruiter touched base with some of his contacts and through the miracle of Xerox and Fax I graduated with a 3.0 or something like that. So on to the physical…

During this process I found out I was flat footed. Now if I am not mistaken you are not passable if you have any physical defects that could possibly have impact on your military performance…right? Well my being flat footed was nothing and I passed. Next it was on to taking the oath and getting ready to leave. During this time life began to actually mean something to me because the people I loved and cared about would not be around the corner or just a bus ride away.

At that time 3 people were at the top of my list…My grandmother, my little brother, and a young lady named Latisha who I was seeing. I did my best to make every moment count whenever I spent time with them but inside I was crying my ass of because I felt like I was being deported in some small way. So of course when the time came to leave I left and yes when I got to Ft. Knox and was able to make my first phone call I cried like a punk to grandmother telling her I wanted to come home. But she said something that was true and really deep during that conversation.

I have never had her talk deep to me like this…she said “Sean it is only a mind game they are playing with you“. Then she said “stop crying because you are strong enough to make it, I didn’t raise you to lose“. WOW…as I sit here typing this I get the same chill and boost of mental strength I got when I first heard those words. Man I miss her so much! So I took on the responsibility of trying to pass basic training. I can’t forget the other brother from DC (V. Walker) who really became my brother during the basic training process. He was my small piece of home and my “NEVER SAY DIE” brother. We were so tight we even had our own personal hand shake we would do anytime we saw each other.

Basic for the most part was fun. But it was also the place that made me realize how out of shape I was. I had only done pushup in 2 places. In gym class at school and in the bed when I was getting some…lol. That rule applied to sit-ups and squats. The only time I ran was when me and the fellas had got into some trouble, or I was trying to catch up with ahoney to get her phone number. So yes I was more out of shape that I thought. But it was the same place I stopped smoking (back to doing it again) and went from 155 lbs. when I came in to 215 lbs. when I was going to Germany.

So the timing was what I believe GOD had in plan. But like everything else in life preparation was missing. I barely passed my final PT test but my drill seargents were very supportive and made sure I passed. I have to admit I really enjoyed the many exercises we had away from the barracks especially the PT course, Rifle/Grenade/Tank range. And those things got me ready to go to the next phase….

In Pt.3 I will get back to Germany…