Hello there, today I want to share with you my journey to joining the US Air Force in my mid-20s, and what led to that decision.
After I dropped out of university following two years of graphic design, I worked different jobs- from secretarial work and hosting at a restaurant, to hotel banquet serving and finally, banking.
Years of figuring life out on my own and learning many lessons, I faced a lot of challenges. I always seemed to struggle financially. I was living paycheck-to-paycheck, sometimes even coming up short. The amount of money I made didn’t seem to match how much and how hard I worked.
When I started working at the local credit union in 2015, I felt that I finally reached some kind of stability. I finally had an “adult” job that I could be proud of.
I have always believed that a higher force existed. Back then, I believed it was solely God, but now I’ve been more open to the Universe. To me, there was just no way all the coincidences and synchronicities happening in my life were random. But of course, when you were in survival mode like I was, it was hard to see it in the moment.
But when I look back at my life, I truly believe I was put in that place for a reason.
Working in the world of banking gave me the education I needed to get my finances straight. I learned about the loaning processes, different types of accounts that earns you dividends, credit scores because what the heck was that, and I started saving money for the first time in my life.
For three years of working there, whenever I attended to someone at the teller line, or assisted them on the phone at the phone center, I saw two types of people:
- the one who yelled in frustration for having a negative balance in their account and blamed everyone else, and
- the one who joyfully transferred money to their grandchildren as a surprise because they could afford it and wanted to.
Obviously, I fell into the first category. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t judge them at all. In fact I sympathized with them because I was in their shoes too.
But that experience sparked something inside me: I no longer wanted to live this way.
I wanted to be able to surprise my family with their favorite things, take a trip somewhere without worrying about the cost, give my sisters allowances as gifts just because.
I wanted out of this financial struggle.
Little did I know, this desire for something better was heard by the universe. And so, she worked.
I was still attending the church but only as a regular member at this point; I had forgone my involvement in the music ministry. I attended mostly out of ‘guilt’ (they were very good at guilt-tripping, haha), routine, and well, I had no social life otherwise.
[PS: did you know that I lived in a church? You can read about my experience here]
One day, we had a guest who looked to be my age. It wasn’t common for us to get young adults join us for services. There were only a handful of us in our 20s; most members are middle-aged, seniors, or little kids. So when we did, I always got excited and tried to get to know them and sit with them during lunch.
So that’s what I did. I sat with her and we had a friendly conversation. I learned that this girl was in the Air Force reserve, working one weekend a month at the Air Force base in town.
To be transparent, I was completely ignorant about the military, thinking it was only combat and dying and well, for men. So I asked her to tell me more. I was definitely intrigued.
By this time I had already been dabbling into the world of public service, interning at the local police department at the time as a marketing intern. I even had a pending application for a secretarial position there. I participated in a citizens academy program, and gone on ride-alongs. You could say I was getting interested in becoming a police officer.
As this girl told me about the Air Force basic training, technical school, and her job, I tuned out the whole lunch hall. I’m pretty sure I stopped eating and was completely locked in to everything she said. I couldn’t explain why listening to her talk about the military gave me butterflies in my stomach.
This time, I didn’t ignore that response.
That very same day when I got home, I spent hours on my computer looking at the Air Force website. I went down the rabbit hole with more excitement than I’d had in a long time. I browsed the job listings, totally shocked at the number of jobs available that wasn’t only shooting and throwing grenades. I wrote down my job choices in order: language analyst, RPA pilot (haha, I could dream), and a photojournalist.
For an entire year, I was locked in on my goal to join the military. I looked at all the branches, but I’ve pretty much decided on the Air Force immediately.
During downtime at the credit union, I was on the Air Force website. At lunch or right after work, I went to Starbucks and studied my ASVAB prep workbook until dusk. While I continued to live life “as usual”, I had a renewed sense of purpose.
Day in and day out, my nose was in my books or Google, or listening to motivational podcasts and Ted talks, or watching YouTube videos about women in the Air Force, or working on increasing the number of push-ups I could do.
Finally having the courage to go into the recruiting office, I worked on my application silently for a year, taking and passing tests left and right. I was blessed with an incredible recruiter, whose wife I became good friends with, who genuinely wanted me to succeed in the military. I can say he set the standard for me, for what type of leader I wanted to be if I made it in.
No one else knew about this goal for a year. Whenever I went to church and they asked for prayer requests, I gave them an “unspoken” prayer request. Little did they know that this request was to be able to have everything go without a hitch in my application so I could leave the city once and for all. I felt so trapped, feeling like I owed them a lifetime of draining service for giving me a home when I needed it.
Finally, I made my announcement a couple months before swearing in and eventually quitting my job. Telling my friends and co-workers felt surreal, especially when leadership announced my next chapter to the whole company and wished me the best.
Up until the day I weighed in one last time, packed with just a backpack and the clothes I had on, swore in and hopped on the plane leaving the city I called home for the last 7 years, I thought about the girl at the church. She never came back. I like to believe that her purpose was fulfilled: she came to change a stranger’s life in that church.
I still think of her often, wishing I could track her down to thank her for what how she changed my life. It’s amazing what the universe brings to you and how she answers to fulfill your desires.
Joining the Air Force was a pivotal moment in my life. I found fulfillment in doing something so much greater than myself.
For many who decided to join the 1%, the military was the first time they left home, and only a stepping stone for the career of their choice outside the military. Many of them were teenagers right out of high school, with so many opportunities ahead of them.
For me, it was the final stage. It was my “it”- there was no other choice after.
The military gave me the financial stability that I enjoyed only for the first time in my life. It taught me skills that I never knew I could have, and developed me into a leader that I didn’t think I had in me. It gave me a family I once prayed for, and a life I never thought was possible for me.
While the military is great at stripping you off of your individuality until you only know how to function as a part of the team, at the same time, it forced me to face myself in the mirror and confront who I truly was.
They taught me to define what mattered most to me, to reflect on my core values and live it out, and know why I do what I do.
Now, here I am. No longer confused about who I am supposed to be. I am living my life fully as me: creative, curious, spontaneous. I am no longer hiding behind a facade. While I could still improve, I am no longer tied to pleasing everyone.
I feel grateful that I get to share my life with you.
For everything, I thank my 26 year-old self for the decision she made to take the biggest adventure of her life.
