Strength is Beautiful

Chapter 1

I woke up that day with one thing on my mind. This is the first day of my new life. I leave for basic which will be the hardest thing that I have had to do in my whole life. I still remember the day 2 years ago when I was only 19 that I decided that I wanted to go into the military. I worked hard every day to go from 246 pounds to 176 pounds. Loosing 70 pounds was life changing and made me feel so much more confident than I ever was. I was a new person on the outside and I honestly loved it. I mean I loved myself when I was heavier, but now I feel like I can actually do something with my life and accomplish my dream.

I decided to take a long hot shower because this is probably the last time that I will have some alone time for a while. I drifted off into my own thoughts while the scolding water fell down my body and the steam engulfed my lungs. I sat down in the tub and let the water just fall on me. For some reason I always liked the feeling of just sitting there with my eyes closed and just feeling the water drop onto my skin. It was the most soothing feeling ever. 

After I had sat there for a lengthy time I cleaned myself off as quickly as I could because at that point the hot water was limited. I wrapped the plush towel around my body and headed for my room to finish packing. Suprisingly there are alot of things you can't bring to basic. I mean my straightner is my life because its the only thing that will tame my wild curls. I think a guy makes up that list of what not to bring because they don't know the struggle of dealing with long volumizing hair.They exspect it to be back in a ponytail which doesn't always work well. I mean i undeerstand the tobacco and alcoholic beverages, but playing cards. I mean come on some people like to play GoFish during there down time. Everything has to fit in a gym bag. But I went out and bought the biggest gym bag I could find. I know the stereotype is true about women having too much stuff, atleast for me it is.

Oh I almost forgot to tell you how the news went over with my family. I have been talking about going into the military ever since my teacher told me I should join the Navy since I have a sailor's mouth. So for the longest time my mom was supportive of me to my face but I know behind my back she didn't think I would ever do it. I have never really stuck with anything that I have tried to do. I gave up and failed out of college and for the longest time I didn't have a job and just hid in my room 24/7. So when I sat my family down and told them that I had only 2 weeks till I left for basic it was shocking. My mother at first had a straight face and kept on repeating "are you serious?" After a couple of times of answering "yes," she started crying histerically. I still don't know if it was a good cry or a bad cry because she rarely talks to me now after I told her. I have settled on the fact that she is not happy about me leaving at all.

My brother was his normal self makeing GI Jane references and how he'll shave my head while i'm sleeping.

But my dad's reaction was the best of all. One of the reasons I decided to go into the military was because of him. My dad is an Army veteran, he was stationed over in Germany during the Cold War. He has always been a big inspiration in my life and when he got up to hug me, it made me feel acceptance for the first time in a long time. Me and my dad have never been able to connect on anything because he is emotional damaged from his horrific childhood. But for once in my life I felt like we finally connected and that he was proud of me.

At first my dad wasn't going to be able to say goodbye to me before I left for South Carolina. But luckily my flight doesnt leave till 7 pm, so my dad is going to drive me to the airport. As soon as my dad arrived home from work I grabbed my gym bag, climbed into the truck, and started our drive to Philadelphia. It was a long hour and a half to get to Phili, but it was our bonding time. We spent it singing obnoxiously loud to Blake Shelton and Florida Georgia Line. He also shared some funny stories about his time in basic and how it has probably changed significantly in 30 years.

We stopped at my grandfather's house for a few moments just to rest before going to the airport and to say goodbye. My grandfather has always been very closed with his emotions. I know he was dissapointed when I didn't fulfill his dream of being the first of the grandchildren to graduate college since all the older ones have been very creative. But I'll never forget when he hugged me and told me that he is so proud of me and that my grandmother would be proud of me also. My grandmother was my hero and she passed away when I was 14, So for him to say that made me feel so happy. I could see the way he got emotional and started to choke up which caused my eyes to water.

He lives right outside of Phili so it was an easy 20 minutes to the airport from there. So I said my goodbyes and we headed off to the airport. When we got to the terminal my dad gave me one of his famous hugs where he squeezes so hard it cracks your back. There were minimal tears, well i was the only one crying because my dad never cries. The only time I saw my dad cry was when my grandmother died because she was like a second mom to him. 

I grabbed my bag and headed through the doors, but turned around one last time to wave to my dad. I went and checked my bag and headed for security. It was the usual pain in the ass security haveing to take off anything metal and taking everything out of my pockets. But the line wasn't as long as it usually is since it was at night. I headed for my gate to sit and wait for which seemed like forever, but was only like 10 minutes. I strolled onto the plane and found my seat. I ended up haveing an empty seat beside me which was nice because then I could look out the window. 

I decided to take a nap since it would make the time go faster and I am not ecstatic about the whole flying thing because of my slight fear of heights. That is the one thing thats going to be difficult about basic, facing my fear of heights is going to be very interesting. So I close my eyes and when I open them I will be in South Carolina.