Now I Fight With The Words

After a two year hiatus, I'm deciding to try out this blogging thing again. My last blog was all about my life in St. Petersburg, Russia in the fall of 2008. You can read it here. I decided to leave that blog as it is, as a record of my time in Piter, and start something new, as a reflection of the next stage of my life.

I'm in a major transitional period. In a week I'll be in Virginia, preparing to begin my graduate studies. I've spent very little time on the East Coast, just a few trips growing up. And I've definitely never been to Virginia. I'm pretty nervous about classes themselves, after spending the last year not only not in school, but not working either. It's going to be a huge change to go from doing nothing, to leaping into a full schedule of graduate level classes, plus an under-grad level Russian class, and a job. On top of that, the bf won't be able to move to Virginia until sometime next winter. It'll be a tough semester, but I have so much to gain!

At the same time, I'm still wrestling with the Navy over my dream-job. In March I was professionally recommended by a board of Navy pilots to become a Student Naval Aviator. Which meant that all I needed to do was get my medical and security clearances, and pass my Physical Requirements Test. It took three months for my recruiter to get me into MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) for my medical clearance. Unfortunately, my medical clearance didn't go through after I had a waiver rejected by Navy Medical. I'm still fighting it.

I've wanted to join the military for years. When I finished high school, I'd gone and talked to an enlisted recruiter. I rocked my ASVAB, and was told I "could do anything". Trouble was, I was 17 and had no direction and didn't know what I wanted to do. At that point, if my recruiter had just said "sign up for this" I would have. But he didn't, so I didn't. Instead I went to college, with the goal in mind to apply for Officer Candidate School once I graduated. So this has been in the works for some time now. It has been unbelievably frustrating, having to fight so hard just to get in. It's what I want, though, so hopefully my hard work will pay off!

Either way, I'm taking those steps forward to prepare to start my life for real!