“Look towards your future,”
-“Phillipe”, Peer, Motivator, and God willing a future SEAL.
Probably the hardest part about this whole process is the waiting. I know how I’ve already preached about keeping motivation high and trying to immerse your self as much as possible which is definitely crucial. But motivation wouldn’t be such an issue if the wait wasn’t so long.
Unfortunately in almost always is. I’ve heard from very few people who sign up and ship out a month later, it seems uncommon. Once you do get your whole application in order and receive a contract for a specific job from the Air Force that is when the wait really begins.
That period of time where you don’t know if you should take classes and get a job because you don’t want to have to withdraw or quit in three months time. Of course your not guaranteed to get a ship date in that time frame and when you don’t you wish you did have a job or had taken a few extra classes while you were waiting around. At least that’s how I felt. Then again if I did have a job and classes who knows what I would’ve sacrificed training wise. Maybe my run times would be a little slower or my push-ups would have suffered.
It’s just a grind.
I workout. that is all I do, day after day. It begins to get monotonous. I kept constantly finding myself hitting that wall after about a month of training. Especially if I had no one to push me, and help motivate. I don’t care who you are, you burnout working by yourself. Top-level triathletes, swimmers, even cyclists have a team to work with and help push one another. Unfortunately, Pararescue isn’t a hugely sought after career due to the degree of fitness involved and the danger related to the job. I was lucky that my recruiter even had another person interested in the field.
I think I was lucky living in the Florida area as I was able to find groups of like-minded individuals and train with them to keep my motivation up. Initially, I had enlisted while I was in Pittsburgh, living with my mom. However, after a time there I began to miss my sister and family back home in Florida and applied for a courtesy ship so I could return home. Fortunately, it was approved. Now when my contract does come around I can process out of Miami instead of Pittsburgh.
As I was saying though, Florida gave me a lot. I found a local bike shop, On Your Mark Bike Shop (http://www.oymbike.com/), that sponsors a small team of individuals who participate in triathlons. I began training with them. Running and swimming were my focus but riding on a bike became a great way of cross training. It helped that my dad was a cyclist and could outfit me in some of his gear, as cycling is an expensive sport. But having this group of people to workout with on a weekly basis was unfathomably helpful.
Once I moved back home to Florida I was no longer able to work with my training partner “Jack,” the fellow PJ wannabe. So I made it a point to find another group of military guys to workout with. As I was prepared to walk into the Navy recruiter’s office and find out when I could workout with their SO candidates (Special Operations) one of my buddies from college and fellow fraternity brother had made the decision to enlist into the Navy as a NUC (Nuclear Engineering). So I began working out a training with him and his fellow Navy DEP members. It was fun, lots of fun.
Once a week these guys would wakeup at 0730 and meet at the beach at 0900 Saturday morning to PT for a solid two hours. Total body workout. It hurt. But damn did it feel good afterwards. I met several guys that I hope to keep in touch with throughout the rest of my lifetime, one was probably one of the most motivated men I had ever met in my entire life. The guy radiated self-confidence and motivation. I look forward to every chance I have to hangout and PT with “Phillipe.” Every word out of his mouth is positive and inspiring. If he heard something he didn’t like or that wasn’t what he wanted to hear, he would yell out “INFRACTION! Time for punishent!” and we would drop to the ground and start pushing dirt.
Surrounding myself with great training partners and like-minded individuals was the only way I could’ve gotten through this long wait period. It made those months seem like they flew by. Because before I knew it my contract was in front of me, and I had a date: 01/03/2012. On that day, I would be at Lackland, AFB in San Antonio, TX. On that day, it will be Week 0, Day 1 of BMT. On that day my journey will begin!
“This is your life now you’re hardcore!”
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